Police on Friday arrested Washington University’s chief executive officer, Gopi Venkat Rao, escorting him off the Oldbury, St Philip campus in handcuffs.
The head of the medical school is said to be an alleged wanted fugitive from India, sought for bilking thousands of dollars from hundreds of students with promises of admissions into foreign medical universities.
Students and faculty at the university were only made aware of Rao’s deceit on Sunday, September 30 after media outlets India Times News Network and The Hindu newspaper reported the day before that more than 200 students were duped by an educational consultancy firm of which Venkat is the owner.
Six of Venkat’s staff members were arrested in India, and police launched a hunt for the director, his wife Nikita Venkat and an associate identified as Zameer, The Hindu reported.
The fraudsters convinced clients that they had secured tie-ups with medical institutions in several countries. They allegedly promised them seats in medical colleges in the U.S. and China.
Police also identified four similar cases where Venkat duped several students and then shut shop to restart in a different province, according to the newspaper.
Prior to his arrest, Venkat was unreachable by staff and students. His executive secretary, Tricia Newton, disclosed that the staff have not been paid and persons felt like they had been “defrauded.”
