The Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which is probing the racket in COMED-K Entrance Test for medical courses, is on the lookout for a doctor who runs a hospital in Delhi. The CID has sent a report to the State government on the probe conducted so far and has criticised the laxity of the Bangalore International Airport police at the time of the arrest of 17 ‘students’ in February this year.
The CID report stated that the Airport police had not taken the fingerprints of the ‘students’ arrested at the airport and not even cross-checked the addresses furnished by them. The ‘students’, mostly from Bihar, had come to write the entrance test for medical courses under fake identities. The modus operandi was to get qualified and professional doctors write the entrance tests under fake identities to block government seats in favour of managements of private medical colleges.
The students were travelling back to Delhi from Bangalore International Airport after the exams in February when the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) grew suspicious of the identity cards used by them. The CISF arrested them and handed them over to the Airport police.
Preliminary report by the CID Investigating Officer stated that though a few students gave statements that they were brought to the city by an agent in Delhi, the Airport police did not carry out a formal investigation process. The Airport police had not even traced the hotels where these professionals were put up for two days.
Sources said the kingpin had filed an anticipatory bail application which was rejected by the Karnataka High Court recently.
The CID probe, prima facie, revealed that private college managements and the kingpin has a nexus. “Investigation revealed that this doctor would pick medical professionals from poor family backgrounds and lure them with cash ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1,00,000 for writing the entrance test in a candidate’s name. After getting the seats, they would surrender them in the last round of counselling only to benefit the private medical colleges in the form of a highly quoted management seat. “The doctor hails from Jharkhand and runs a hospital in Delhi. The probe is on to track down the doctor,” an official said.