PGIMER entrance examination of November 10 scrapped after unearthing of cheating racket

Updated on: Saturday, November 17, 2012

The Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) cancelled its MD/MS entrance examination held here last week after a cheating racket was unearthed by CBI.

PGIMER spokesperson Manju Wadwalkar said, "In the wake of an FIR filed by the CBI and a copy of the same received by PGI authorities, it was decided by the administration that the entrance examination for January 2013 session, which was held on November 10, would be scrapped to avoid litigation and other complications."

The examination for holding the entrance test for the MD (doctor of medicine)/MS (master of surgery) is now likely to be conducted in the second week of December as per availability of centres for the entrance examination, she said.

She said that in the absence of PGIMER Director Dr Y K Chawla, a meeting was chaired by the institute's acting director, Dr Vinay Sakhuja and attended by senior functionaries, after which the decision to cancel the examination was taken.

The decision will affect 7,300 candidates, who appeared for the 78 post graduation seats in various departments of PGIMER in 11 different examination centres set up in the city.

CBI has arrested 16 people so far after its sleuths swooped down on examination centres and arrested seven girls who were writing the exams with the help of blue-tooth hearing devices embedded in their ears.

Meanwhile, a local court today extended the remand of 15 of the arrested accused in the case by another two days. CBI special counsel told the court that they have procured the documents from the PGIMER authorities last evening, on the basis of which decoy candidates had applied for the examination.

Now, the CBI would be required to take the accused to Hyderabad to ascertain the source of these documents and the details of the attestation authority, the counsel submitted.

"We have got the documents of these decoy candidates from the PGIMER last evening and now we would check that from where these supporting certificates, with application form, came. It will also be checked from where these documents were attested and for that we might require to go to Hyderabad to collect more evidence," the counsel said.

The investigating agency said that so far in the interrogation, the accused have not revealed anything about the identity of actual beneficiaries and also about the amount charged from them.

"We have recovered four tablets from the possession of the accused and so far. However, so far the source of only one tablet has been ascertained. The arrested accused have not revealed other details like identities of the actual beneficiaries, amount received and how the money was utilised," the CBI special counsel P K Dogra said, adding they have also seized five inner jackets whose source was yet to be ascertained.

The defence counsels opposed the plea for further remand and said that CBI sleuths are "unnecessarily harassing" the accused. Earlier, the institute had withheld for an indefinite period the result for its MD/MS entrance examination on Saturday.

PGIMER entrance examination of November 10 scrapped after unearthing of cheating racket

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