In a major crackdown on corruption in education, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached properties worth ₹19.46 crore linked to the BMS Educational Trust in Bengaluru. The action targets a sprawling seat-blocking racket and money laundering scheme that preyed on aspiring engineering students.
The ED’s Bengaluru Zonal Office provisionally attached three immovable assets—a plot and two flats—on January 21, 2026, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. These properties belong to trustees of the trust, which runs prestigious institutions like the BMS College of Engineering.
The scam revolves around illegal seat allocations in engineering colleges managed through the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA). College management allegedly inflated fees, extracting massive cash payments far beyond official rates. Middlemen posing as education consultants brokered these deals, ensuring no records tainted the trust’s books.
Prior raids on June 25, 2025, and May 26, 2025, uncovered damning evidence. ED teams seized ₹1.86 crore in cash from trustees, management, and agents. Diaries, WhatsApp chats, and documents revealed unaccounted collections exceeding ₹20.20 crore from seat sales.
Staff confessions painted a grim picture: seats under management quota were auctioned off in cash, depriving meritorious students of opportunities while lining private pockets. The laundered proceeds funded personal luxuries for trust insiders.
This case exposes deep-rooted rot in India’s higher education sector, where opaque admission processes enable exploitation. Parents shelled out lakhs extra, often taking loans, only to secure spots for their children through back channels.
ED vows to pursue further probes, identifying additional culprits and assets. Officials hail the move as a pivotal step toward transparency, urging stricter oversight of private colleges. As investigations deepen, the scandal threatens to implicate more players in Bengaluru’s engineering admission mafia.