To what extent will you go to get your child admitted to a school of your choice?
A Delhi resident was arrested on Saturday, 7 April, for faking his economic background to get his son admitted to the Sanskriti school under the economically weaker section (EWS) category.
Gaurav Goel is a businessman who owns an MRI lab and runs a wholesale business of selling pulses. He has even travelled to 20 countries, reported India Today. Goel, on the other hand, had told the school that his annual income was Rs 67,000 and that he was a resident of Sanjay Camp slum.
Deputy Commissioner of Police Madhur Verma told ANI:
The man made false EWS certificate, residence proof and I-T return documents, among others.
In his defence, Goel told reporters that the incident dates back to 2013 and his documents were not found fake. He was in the EWS category back then, the businessman asserted.
How Was the Ploy Unearthed?
Even though the incident did take place in 2013, the authorities were quite oblivious to his economic status until he applied for the admission of his second child under the sibling quota. While verifying the details of the elder child, the school unearthed some major discrepancies, reported The Times of India. It was then that the authorities decided to go to the police.
The school first got suspicious when Gaurav told them that that they could shift his elder son from EWS category to general because his economic status had gradually improved, a police officer told TOI. Their suspicion intensified when he said that they lived in an apartment in Safdarjung Enclave.
The police conducted a probe and Goel was arrested from his actual home in Jawahar Nagar. They are now trying to find out who helped Goel forge the documents.
Upon visiting the Sanjay Camp home Goel had initially claimed to be living in, India Today discovered that an elderly lady had been staying there with her son and her husband since the 1980s.
Others residing in that area told India Today that they had actually been applying for their children’s admission to school under the EWS category for years, but to no avail.
Gaurav Goel’s story, however, is astonishingly similar to the plot of Bollywood flick Hindi Medium.
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