KIMS seat scam just the tip of the iceberg

More details are coming to light from the ongoing probe into the involvement of the KIMS management in the scam, pointing fingers at more than one college.

Doubts are also being raised about the efficacy of the Consortium of Medical, Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (Comed-K) system.  A senior Comed-K official told Deccan Herald that what was conceptualised as a single-window system had now been hijacked by crooks from various institutions across the State and converted into a business venture.

“I have lost all hope in Comed-K,” said the official.  Since the inception of exams by Comed-K, Karnataka Religious Linguistic Minority (KRLM) and the Common Entrance Test (CET), no committee has overseen the working of any of the exams.

“The universities, Directorate of Medical Education, overseeing committees and the Medical Council of India are all statutory authorities with powers vested in them. None of them comes into the picture when there is a serious fraud like in the case of KIMS,” said the official.

He said the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences and the Medical Council of India suffered from ‘selective blindness’.

Candidate 4064 in Comed-K 2011 and roll number 22 in class, Prateek Kumar is the 17th in the list of dropout candidates this year at KIMS. Hailing from a place near Allahabad, Prateek spoke from Uttar Pradesh and named KIMS as a major player in the medical seat scam. He also named another prestigious institution in the city.

“KIMS as an institution is ranked better, but the management is easier to handle for mutual transfer. Anyone who gets a rank below 200 at Comed-K will somehow drop out. There will be mutual transfer with the help of the college management and one can get the seat,” Prateek said.

Prateek is among 24 dropout candidates named in a document provided by A Prasad, member of Vokkaligara Sangha, who filed the FIR in which the Sangha president, Kenchappa Gowda, is the first accused. The other candidates could not be contacted as their phones were switched off. Prateek identified Dr Ibrahim Pasha, the second accused in the FIR, as an agent.

The names tally with those in a notice dated September 10 issued by the Dean and Principal of KIMS, in which absentees from classes have been mentioned.

Prateek, who has allegedly taken lakhs of rupees according to Prasad, to write the Comed-K exam in Karnataka, said: “The hue and cry in the media will affect admissions next year. Since the staff at KIMS are involved, we cannot expect things to change in the coming years.” Despite all allegations, Mahadev, General Secretary of the Sangha, said the institution did not have any dropouts over the past few years.

However, the list of candidates admitted to KIMS during 2010-2011 has six such candidates, of which three are Comed-K dropouts.

Prasad met Home Minister R Ashoka on Saturday and demanded that Gowda be arrested  at the earliest.  Gowda had applied for advance bail which was rejected by Fast Track court number 10 on Monday evening. Arun Gangadar, lawyer for Prasad, said: “The court said that the matter is of a serious nature and there is substantial ground not to grant him bail.” The court’s decision may put pressure on the investigating police team to arrest Gowda, he said.