Karnataka Examinations Authority blocks fake applications for medical seats under NRI quota

Bengaluru: Close on the heels of detecting a suspected seat-blocking scam during engineering admissions, the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) has foiled attempts by candidates to submit fake applications under the NRI quota for postgraduate medical seats.

Elaborating on this, Executive Director of KEA Prasanna H told DH that of the 500-plus candidates who applied under this quota, 320 were found to be eligible after the first level of filtering. But during the second level of verification, 14 candidates were found to have submitted bogus documents.

“This time we double-checked the applications, and during the verification, we got suspicious over the documents submitted by some of candidates claiming the NRI quota,” Prasanna said.

According to KEA rule, candidates, who claimed NRI ‘sponsorship’, must submit authentication for their ‘family tree’ from the concerned tahsildar. “There are specific norms to claim NRI sponsorship. Only blood relations residing outside the country can sponsor. But in some cases, there were claims from those who are not blood relations. For such cases, we demanded authentication from the tahsildar,” Prasanna said.

Interestingly, of the 14 candidates, only four turned up with authentication letter from the concerned tahsildar.

A few candidates had a run-in with KEA officials as they wanted to submit an affidavit instead of authenticated document. “We experienced resistance from the candidates in the initial stages itself as we demanded signature of the concerned embassy/consulate and not allowing notary of the family tree for NRI sponsorship. But we did not yield to any such pressures and decided to continue as per our norms,” Prasanna said.

The rulebook

In private medical colleges, 15% seats are reserved under NRI quota. This can be opted by direct NRI students or through NRI sponsorship. There is a norm to claim sponsorship. As described by Supreme Court, only blood relations of the candidate can sponsor. For example: Brother or sister of parents can sponsor, but not their husband or wife.