7 docs, 10 students held for malpractices

DIG Shankar Bidri said the main accused Dr Vinayak Prasanna, Assistant Professor at Vijayanagar Institute of Medical Sciences (VIMS) at Bellary is absconding after being granted anticipatory bail by the High Court this month.

He told reporters here that said some candidates had complained to Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) Registrar about alleged malpractices in conduct of the exam after results showed the 11 top ranks were bagged by those who had appeared at VIMS' centre.

Investigation showed that Prasanna had been indulging in the fraud for the last three years in connivance with RGUHS staff and had helped many candidates secure ranks in the PGET exam, he said.

Police said all the accused, who were arrested yesterday were produced before a local court and remanded in 15 days' judicial custody.

Bidris said some other candidates also lodged a complaint with then Lokayukta Santosh Hegde, after which he constituted a three-member panel of doctors to look into the issue.The panel said there was a strong suspicion of malpractice in the exam at VIMS. Meanwhile, the RGUHS Registrar also lodged a complaint on March 15, 2011 and a case was registered.

On the basis of the Lokayukta report, RGUHS annulled results of 11 candidates and they were not permitted to take part in counselling for admission to PG courses in various colleges.

All the candidates then approached Karnataka High Court, which on May 26 ordered that all of them should be permitted to take part in counselling and allotted seats. It also entrusted investigation to CID and ordered that the case be investigated by an officer of the rank of IGP.

Bidri said CID raids on houses of candidates and officials of VIMS and RGUHS yielded nine laptops, 25 hard disks, 20 pen drives and 28 mobile phone sets, containing material like question papers, key answer sheets, correspondence on seat allocation and shuffling patterns of questions papers.

About Prasanna's modus operandi, Bidri said he used to contact some candidates and promised them seats by securing ranks in PGET exam if they paid him about 50 per cent of the amount charged by medical colleges to give seats from Management Quota in the required subject. Aided by accomplices at VIMS, he managed to become an invigilator in the hall where candidates who had approached him took the exam. One hour before the exam started, he would open the sealed packet of question papers,photograph them with a digital camera, take print outs and distribute it to subject experts, who would then prepare the key answers.

These were then distributed to the 11 candidates, Bidri said.