Certificate Scam: RGUHS to take away affiliation from 7 nursing colleges

Bengaluru: The scandal of fake nursing mark cards and provisional degree certificates that hit the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) over a year ago, has taken another turn.

According to recent media reports, the premier university is going to take away its affiliation from seven of its nursing colleges which will create a deficit of around 350 nursing seats in the state.

Providing confirmation to the news, Dr S Sacchidanand, Vice-Chancellor, RGUHS informed the TOI about the colleges that are going to be disaffiliated are Bethel Medical Institute of Nursing Sciences, Hosmat College of Nursing, Pan Asia College of Nursing, Bethel College of Physiotherapy, Hosmat College of Physiotherapy, Hosmat Hospital and Educational Institution and Gayathridevi College of Nursing, all located in Bengaluru.

The university has got its syndicate approval to disaffiliate these institutions. The Bethel Group of Institutions was under the RGUHS scanner last year after a team of investigators found records of forgery.

In June last year, Medical Dialogues had reported about the case being taken over by the Crime Investigation Department (CID). That was being done since prima facie it was indicated that a larger racket is operating in the state. Specific cases of forged documents were being linked to colleges run by the Bethel Medical Mission (BMM).

At that time, a 1,200-page report detailing the fraud involved was submitted by the RGUHS before the varsity’s syndicate. The 2 volume report had the 1^st talk of deciphered technical data from the CDs, and hard disks and the 2nd speak of the other documents seized from Bethel Medical Mission.

Bethel Medical Mission, Chairman, Sunny D, felt that efforts were on to tarnish the name of their group as they represented the minorities.

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Eight months later in the case, Nandini Layout police have arrested a physiotherapist and a computer operator working with the BMM, TOI reported in December last year.

Now, the case already in the hands of CID, the RGUHS VC has confirmed the disaffiliation of the aforementioned nursing institutes.

“These institutions are run by single management and are facing allegations of involvement in the certificate scam. The disaffiliation will remain in place until the colleges come clean,” Dr Sacchidanand told TOI.

“We have issued a notice to the institution to stop admitting candidates for the next year unless they come out clean in the case. Our team had found several fake marks cards and a case of forgery was filed. The syndicate has decided to issue a public notice to all students that they should not be taking admission in these institutions,” he stated to Mirror.

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However, BMM Chairman claimed that the university has not sent them any notice. “The varsity has to call for verification before taking up the disaffiliation. The case is being investigated by the CID,” he added.

He said that the Gayathridevi Nursing College is not being run by BMM, though as per the records, it is.

It has been informed that these colleges had been told not to admit students during 2018-19 but they went ahead and enrolled 350 students. “We will see if there are any provisions to accommodate over 1,000 students currently on the rolls of these institutions in other colleges,” another senior university official informed.

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