Seat scam: Deemed, pvt medical colleges under I-T radar

All deemed-to-be medical universities and private medical colleges in the state are now under the scanner of the Income Tax (I-T) department.

This follows recent I-T raids on two deemed-to-be medical universities, which were said to be the tip of the iceberg of the medical seat blocking scam.

Highly placed sources in the I-T department confirmed the move. They said, “We are looking into it holistically, as seat blocking is done across all private medical colleges, with a larger degree of irregularities among the deemed-to-be universities.”

Of the 59 medical colleges functioning in the state, 29 are private medical colleges and 11 are deemed-to-be universities. Recently, the I-T department conducted raids on Sri Siddartha University (deemed-to-be) in Tumkuru, owned by former minister Dr G Parameshwara, and Sri Devaraj Urs University (deemed-to-be), owned by former minister R L
Jalappa.

The department unearthed the scam that runs into several crores of rupees every year during medical admissions.

Meanwhile, the Janmabhoomi Foundation has submitted a representation to Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, urging him to to hand over the seat-blocking scam to the CBI for investigation.

Nataraj Sharma S, president of the Foundation, submitted a document of around 100 pages. He has made allegations against 16 private and deemed-to-be medical colleges about their involvement in seat-blocking.

“The seat blocking by 212 students was raised at the government level in 2018-19. The Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences denied permission to these students to appear for examinations. The then principal secretary of medical education department had written to the Medical Council of India about this. Despite this, efforts are being made at the higher level in the government to hush up this scam,” said Sharma.

“I have provided all necessary documents to the chief minister,” he said.