MD entrance results withheld by PGIMER to probe a racket in solving the exam paper

Updated on: Monday, November 12, 2012

The Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) here has withheld for an indefinite period the result of the 7,300 candidates who appeared for its MD entrance examination on Saturday after the CBI took 14 people, including seven girls, on remand till November 15 to probe a racket in solving the exam paper.

"The examination results have been withheld for an indefinite period. This is the status as of now. In normal circumstances, the results would have been declared the following day," PGIMER's spokesperson Manju Wadwalkar said here.

Asked if there was a lapse on the institute's part and that it failed to detect that the accused girls, who are from Andhra Pradesh, were not meeting the eligibility criteria of having a valid MBBS degree for appearing in the examination, she said, "when candidates apply for these exams, we only take photocopies of certificates from them. The original documents are only verified once the candidates have cleared the examination".

After the arrest of seven girls along with seven accomplices from here, CBI investigations revealed that the accused girls did not hold MBBS degrees and some were merely matriculates or Class XII pass and the agency is scrutinising the records submitted by the candidates.

According to CBI sources, the 14 people arrested from Chandigarh, allegedly involved in answering questions of the post-doctoral exams at the prestigious PGI, Chandigarh, used to charge Rs 50 lakh per candidate.

CBI had arrested 14 people from Chandigarh and detained three in Patna and one in Hyderabad 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.

The CBI is ascertaining the identity of the beneficiaries and the process was on to establish how many candidates in all had given fake documents to appear in the examinations.

"We have seized relevant record and further investigations are under progress... We had received a tip-off following which we conducted raids at the examination centres here," CBI's DIG, Mahesh Aggarwal said.

The accused girls were planted by kingpin of the gang P Gurvi Reddy, a medical dropout from Andhra Pradesh in different examination centres set up in the city to leak questions using hidden hi-end bluetooth devices and smart phones.

The experts then sent the solved questions back to the base camp, from where the answers were dictated through sophisticated bluetooth devices.

The accused girls, who appeared in the examination, were provided "special training" and given Rs 1 lakh each. The girls had hidden hi-end bluetooth devices and mobile phones in their under garments and the cords of trousers they were wearing, CBI sources said.

They were scanning the question papers and sending them out through internet-enabled smart phones.

The candidates were trained by Gurvi Reddy, who had been earlier arrested in a similar case in Andhra Pradesh, they said.

The arrested accused were produced before the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate at his residence here yesterday and remanded to police custody till November 15.

Meanwhile, this is not the first time that fingers have been raised over the entire admission process pertaining to the postgraduate medical courses at the PGIMER.

Two years back, the premier institute was hit by an admissions racket, after CBI arrested two junior resident doctorson charge of fradulently securing admission in the postgraduate courses.

During the investigations, it was allegedly found that both had secured admission through impersonation.

MD entrance results withheld by PGIMER to probe a racket in solving the exam paper

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