Mauritian accuses pastor of cheating him of Rs 15 lakh

Updated on: 29 May,2009 08:36 AM IST |
MiD DAY Correspondent |

A businessman from Mauritius is accusing a city pastor of cheating him of Rs 15 lakh, the amount that was to get his daughter a medical seat

A businessman from Mauritius is accusing a city pastor of cheating him of Rs 15 lakh, the amount that was to get his daughter a medical seat.

Daljeet K Goppe filed a complaint at Banaswadi police station on Wednesday, accusing Rev Jacob Sabastine, chairman of Devine Education Trust in Banaswadi, of cheating many aspiring youngsters from Mauritius.

Goppe approached Sabastine's local agent Dr Hamraz Pallavan and asked for a medical seat for his daughter, Bhavana.u00a0 Pallavan agreed to get her an MBBS seat in Vellore Medical College but wanted Rs 15 lakh.u00a0 When Pallavan, Goppe and Bhavana went to Chennai and met Sabastine, he showed them a couple of records to convince them of his ability to get a seat at VMC for the year 2007-2008.

Convinced, Goppe came down to Bangalore with a demand draft of Rs 15 lakh and handed it over to Sabastine on February 22, 2007 at his office in the presence of his associates.

"Sabastine then asked us to go to Vellore and apply for admission." Goppe realised there was something amiss when he found Bhavana's name missing from the selection list.

Goppe started calling Sabastine, demanding his money back. Though Sebastine initially assured him that that the money would be returned, he soon started avoiding his calls. Goppe then engaged an advocate in Bangalore who managed to get back Rs 3.49 lakh. But Sabastine continued to dodge calls and ignore the legal notices.