Man arrested for cheating senior citizens on pretext of taking them for Mahakumbh Mela
Bengaluru, Mar 10 (PTI): A 35-year-old man was arrested for allegedly cheating senior citizens on the pretext of taking them to Prayagraj for the Mahakumbh Mela, police said on Monday.
Police suspect that Raghavendra Rao, who was a former journalist, had swindled more than Rs 70 lakh.
The accused allegedly lost the money he earned through cheating senior citizens in online betting, police said, adding he has installed three betting apps on his phone.
The matter came to light after those duped approached Govindarajanagar police station with complaints against Rao, police said.
At least 21 such complaints were registered against him at the same police station, they added.
According to the police, the accused, who recently ventured into tourism business, put up posts on Facebook where he lured people with attractive seven days trip to pilgrimage trips covering places like Ayodhya, Varanasi and Prayagraj.
When he started out, as promised, he took some of them to the trip and also posted pictures of it on his social media account. Later, several senior citizens approached him for the same, a senior police officer said.
Preliminary investigation has revealed that Rao used to charge Rs 49,000 for seven days trip. After collecting required amount for the package, he booked air tickets for his customers and sent it to them, he said.
However, later, he cancelled their tickets and stopped picking up their calls or switched off his cell phone, he added.
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NEET student hangs self in Rajasthan's Sikar
Jaipur (PTI): A student preparing for the NEET examination allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself in a rented room in Rajasthan's Sikar on Friday, police said.
According to the police, the student allegedly hanged himself from a ceiling fan using his sister's scarf while one sister was attending coaching classes and the other was in the bathroom.
He had appeared in the NEET UG exam 2026, which was cancelled due to paper leak, they said.
Udyog Nagar SHO Rajesh Kumar said that the deceased, identified as Pradeep Meghwal, was a resident of Kanika ki Dhani village in Jhunjhunu's Gudha Gaudji area.
He had been living in a rented room in Sikar's Jaldhari Nagar area with his two sisters while preparing for NEET over the last three years.
His elder sister later found him hanging and informed the landlord and police after bringing him down, officials said.
The SHO said the body was kept at SK Hospital mortuary, and a postmortem had not been conducted.
The student's father, Rajesh Kumar Meghwal, told police that Pradeep's NEET examination had gone well and the family was expecting him to score around 650 marks.
Former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot expressed grief over the incident and linked it to anxiety among students after reports of irregularities and paper leaks in NEET 2026.
Pilot said repeated paper leak incidents and cancellation of examinations were affecting students' mental health and demanded a time-bound investigation and strict action against those responsible.
