MUMBAI: The IIT community has raised alarm bells against persons who pose as its alumni and fraudulently garner loans , never to repay them.

Niladri Sarkar’s happens to be one such case. Sarkar socially engineered his way into the IIT circuit by claiming to have been a student of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur, IIT Bombay and IIT Madras at different points in time. Sarkar, who appears to be in his late 20s, even claimed to have pursued research at MIT in the US.

“We have heard of an issue regarding some Mr Niladri Sarkar who appears to have made claims of doing MS under professor P K Das of mechanical engineering. Professor Das has confirmed that he has not supervised any such student by this name. We have accordingly intimated the police,” IIT Kgp director Partha Chakrabarti told TOI.

Before the fraud came to light, Sarkar had begun to add IITians as friends on Facebook and was extremely active on social platform Quora.

His answers on Quora about the “time” he had spent at IIT and his explanation on why James Bond liked his martini shaken and not stirred earned him 39,500 followers. Soon, he began to personally message first- and seconds-year IITians to seek financial help, and duped many who sympathized with him.

“A few months ago, when he was on the Kgp campus, he began to approach faculty members stating that he was an alumnus of IIT Kgp and willing to collaborate with alumni for his MIT project. However, when confronted by one of our alumni who suspected foul play, he took down most of these claims from social media,” noted the IIT Khg student body in its campus publication. When the concerned MIT professor was contacted, “it was also found out that his MIT claim was totally fake,” it added.

When TOI contacted him, Sarkar said he was innocent and denied being an IIT Kgp alumnus.

“He would write to us saying that his mum’s funeral was taking place and he was short on funds or that his sister was applying to medical schools and she needed money for applications. Each time, he would promise to return the money next month,” said an IIT Kgp student who lent him Rs 15,800.

IITians and former students have responded to IIT Kgp’s fraud alert. Students have also written to the dean of student affairs Somesh Kumar. When TOI contacted Kumar, he referred the publication to student vice-president Vishal Singh, who said, “We have received complaints from students on our campus and some people have contacted us from Bengaluru, too, about being conned. We are looking at collecting some additional documents and then filing a case.”

“I am among the many who have paid him money regarding his various emotional family issues, which have now been proved to be fraudulent. I have collected proof against him and contacted many people who are his victims. Money amounting to over INR 50,000 has been looted by him from one of our friends and many others have provided him amounts ranging from INR 1,000-30,000,” read a letter to the dean.

“We helped him based on his interactions with us and the profile he had created for himself on social media platforms by masquerading as an IIT Kgp alumnus, which has been confirmed as false. We now feel helpless and have therefore thought of requesting your attention in this matter. As a matter of fact, the image of IIT Kgp is at stake and a lot of money from different students has been fraudulently gathered in the name of trust,” the letter added.

Sarkar’s fraudulent claims included have three research papers, none of which are available online. He also claimed to have a Research Quality Index certificate showing a score of 100/100 in research and an All India Rank (AIR) 1, jointly issued by IIT Kanpur. According to him, this certificate is issued once in five years. However, there is no such index or program by any IIT or IISc. His Facebook profile displayed a mail from MIT dean expressing his willingness to participate in the Indian Research Quality Index Conference to be organized by him at IIT Kgp. No such conference took place. Sarkar held an IIT Kgp identity card, which did not look like the regular ones that students possess.

