Bengaluru: The CEO of a company in Bengaluru was apprehended following allegations of defrauding 2000 students of a total of Rs 18 crore, media reports said.

According to a Moneycontrol report, the company had made false assurances of providing educational loans and embezzled the funds. According to law enforcement authorities, each student was deceived of over Rs 2 lakh.

The CEO of "Geeklurn," identified as Sreenivas, has been taken into custody by the police. However, other key members of the management, including Chief Financial Officer Raman P C and Operations Head Aman, are yet to be arrested.

The incident was brought to light when a 26-year-old student, who had enrolled in the company's 24-month data science course in December, lodged a complaint against the CEO and other executives, accusing them of fraud.

According to the complaint, the company had agreed to continue paying the student's EMI (Equated Monthly Installment) until they secured employment, after which the responsibility would shift to the student, said the report.

However, the accused individuals failed to fulfill this agreement.

They stopped depositing the EMIs into the student's account starting from the third month and claimed that the agreement had been cancelled for unknown reasons, demanding the remaining payments.

According to a police official, the student who had filed the initial complaint was unable to fulfill the payment obligations as they had not completed the online course and were unemployed, said the report.

Following the first complaint, 13 more students came forward with similar allegations of being cheated by "Geeklurn."

Senior police officer P Krishnakanth stated that the alleged fraudulent activities of "Geeklurn" were not limited to Bengaluru but had also taken place in other states such as Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.