Medical students arrested in connection with the Pre-Medical Test (PMT) scam arrive for questioning at Madhya Pradesh Special Task Force Headquarters in Bhopal on Thursday.
The Special Task force (STF) on Wednesday detained around 125 suspects from Madhya Pradesh in the 2012-13 medical examination scam. The detained include students, parents and middle men. So far over 50 of the detained have been arrested and the number is likely to go up.
Liladhar Songare, a teacher from Indore does not know what her daughter Ruchi's future will be. Ruchi's admission was cancelled a few months ago. She has been interrogated by the STF three times already. And on Wednesday late night she was detained by them. She had allegedly paid an advance of Rs 25000 to a middle man to get a seat.
"When my daughter was in coaching she was approached by a middleman. He offered us a confirmed seat in BDS course for Rs 5 lakhs. We did pay Rs 25,000 to him but he did not show up after that. My daughter on her merit secured a seat and was pursuing BDS," said Ms Songare.
In August last year the crime branch arrested 20 fake candidates, Senior Analyst of Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (MPPEB) Nitin Mahindra, CP Mishra and Ajay Sen. Dr Sagar who was believed to be the kingpin was also arrested. After August, 400 more people were arrested including politicians, MPPEB officials and doctors. Till now the admission of over 1000 medical students has been cancelled.
Former technical education minister Lakshmikant Sharma has been arrested in a wrongful recruitment of teachers scam. And Congress is alleging that Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan knew about the scam but did nothing to stop it.
Investigators have found out that fake candidates actually wrote the entrance test on behalf of students and helped many candidates cheat, with key state examination board officials in the loop. NDTV has accessed documents that show the board cancelled 17 questions in the 2013 Pre-Medical test (PMT) and changed answers to four questions, which reportedly helped in the cheating.
While the idea of unqualified doctors is particularly frightening, it is just the tip of the iceberg. During investigation, the hard disks seized from MPPEB official Nitin Mahindra reportedly revealed discrepancies in the recruitment of teachers, nurses and even police officials.