The police on Friday arrested a man for cheating an east Delhi family by taking close to Rs 4 lakh on the pretext of getting their son a seat in a foreign university.

The accused has been identified as Vijay Shrivastava, 32. The police are now trying to ascertain whether he is involved in human trafficking.

According to the police, they received a complaint on Friday from one Deepak Goyal, a resident of Pandav Nagar in east Delhi, saying he had paid the accused to facilitate his son’s trip abroad for higher studies. Goyal said in his complaint that he paid the money after seeing a newspaper advertisement placed by Shrivastava.

In the advert, Shrivastava promised a hassle-free trip to abroad “in one go”, Goyal said in his complaint.

“He (Shrivastava) promised to send Goyal’s son to Switzerland for studies,” a police officer said. “He also assured that he would arrange visa and other formalities.”

The complainant said Shrivastava sought Rs 8 lakh for the services — after negotiations, the deal was fixed at Rs 7 lakh, and Goyal paid Rs 1 lakh as advance. All these negotiations took place in January, the police officer said. After the first payment, the accused asked for money to arrange for “other formalities” for the trip, the officer said. “He had told Goyal that he has got connections with several universities abroad, and assured him that his son would get a seat.”

According to the police, Goyal paid a further Rs 1,90,000, Rs 40,000, and Rs 1,30,000 to Shrivastava in different installments. But Shrivastava, Goyal’s complaint says, stopped responding to their calls soon; he even evaded meeting them. Smelling something amiss, Goyal lodged an FIR (for cheating) at Pandav Nagar Police Station on Friday. Shrivastava was arrested the same day.