Chandigarh:
The Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research (PGIMER) in Chandigarh on Thursday cancelled the entrance test held for admissions to post-graduate medical courses following the registration of a criminal case over a question paper leak. A fresh test would be held next month.
"In the wake of an FIR filed by the CBI and a copy of the same received by the PGI, 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," a PGIMER spokesperson said in Chandigarh.
Seven girls were arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) from examination centres in Chandigarh on Saturday while allegedly transmitting the question paper out of the centre. They were using sophisticated mobile applications on smart-phones to do this, CBI officials said.
Following raids at the examination centres and other places, the CBI arrested a total of 15 people allegedly involved in the leakage of the entrance test papers.
The PGIMER is likely to conduct a fresh entrance test for the courses in December second week.
"In order to prevent the use of any unfair means, metal detectors and jammers would be used at all examination centres and frisking of the candidates would be done prior to their entry," the PGIMER spokesperson said.
Interrogation of the accused by the CBI has revealed that the gang was using latest mobile apps to leak the question papers of the MD and MS (doctor of medicine and master of surgery) entrance examination.
The matter came to light following simultaneous raids on Saturday by the CBI in Chandigarh and other places to bust the racket. The raids were conducted during the examination being held in Chandigarh. The examination was stopped following the raids.
The post-graduate course is much sought after by medical graduates (MBBS) and only a few among hundreds are able to get into it.
CBI sources in Chandigarh said that the gang was using latest mobile apps of smart-phones to click photographs of the question paper and transfer the same through another software, using high resolution fonts.
Subject experts, who were sitting hundreds of kilometres away in Patna and Hyderabad, were delivering the answers of these papers to the "beneficiaries" inside the examination halls through touts sitting in a hotel in Chandigarh.
The CBI, two years ago, had investigated another racket for admission to the MD and MS course at the PGIMER.