New Delhi: FIITJEE, the coaching institute for IIT-JEE and other engineering entrance exams, allegedly duped more than 14,000 students to the tune of Rs 250 crore, a spokesperson for the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said Saturday. FIITJEE, the spokesperson said in a statement, collected fees from as many students but shut down its centres allegedly without providing them with the classes they had paid for.
As many as 14,411 students paid FIITJEE a total of Rs 250.20 crore, and their academic sessions were supposed to end between the ongoing 2025-26 and 2028-29 sessions. But FIITJEE shut its doors earlier this year, leaving aspirants and their parents in the lurch.
ThePrint reached FIITJEE for comment via email but had not received a response by the time of publication. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
Providing a specific set of numbers, the ED spokesperson said Saturday that 9,823 students paid FIITJEE Rs 181.89 crore for coaching classes in the academic year 2025-26. Data from students who paid for three subsequent academic sessions shows 3,316, 1,008, and 264 students spent Rs 47.48 crore, Rs 17.07 crore, and Rs 3.76 crore, respectively, in advance payments to the institute for courses supposed to end in the next three years.
Findings of the ED’s probe so far were revealed after a two-day search spanning seven locations, including residences of the coaching institute’s CEO and COO, D.K. Goel, which concluded late Friday. Searches were also conducted at FIITJEE’s registered premises, as well as other locations in Noida, Gurugram, and Delhi linked to the coaching institute.
Sources in the agency told ThePrint that action was prompted by registration of an Enforcement Complaint Information Report (ECIR) earlier in February, after at least six FIRs were filed by police in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh over closure of at least eight centres across Noida, Ghaziabad, Meerut as well in Bhopal, Delhi and Patna.
Gautam Buddha Nagar Police in January booked FIITJEE’s CEO Goel and nine others under sections 336 (forgery), 316 (criminal breach of trust), 318(4) (cheating), and 61 (criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and section 397 (seeking relief if affairs of company are being conducted in a manner oppressive to any member) of the Companies Act. The FIR in this case was registered at Noida’s Sector 58 police station on complaints from nearly 150 parents.
Ghaziabad Police Commissionerate, too, booked Goel and others under similar sections at the Kavi Nagar police station, as did Delhi Police’s Economic Offences Wing under sections 406 (punishment for criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), and 120B (punishment for criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) based on complaints from nearly 200 students and their parents.
Delhi Police had filed an FIR based on 192 complaints received from a group of parents and students. Police sources said as many as 110 complaints have been examined, and FIITJEE group Chief Financial Officer Rajeev Babbar questioned so far in the probe.
“A majority of complaints have been examined. The Group Chief Financial Officer has been examined, and work is underway to collect all documents from banks in which money was deposited into and used by the people running the business, based on which further course of action will be decided,” said a police official who did not wish to be named.
The federal probe agency has further alleged that funds collected by the institute under the guise of providing educational services were siphoned off for personal and unauthorised use in a systematic manner. At the same time, faculty members employed by the institute were left unpaid, leading to the closure of the institute’s centres.
“Consequently, 32 coaching centres at Ghaziabad, Lucknow, Meerut, Noida, Prayagraj, Delhi, Bhopal, Gwalior, Indore, Faridabad, Gurugram, Mumbai etc, were abruptly shut down, causing widespread distress to approximately 15,000 students and parents,” the agency spokesperson said in a statement Saturday.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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