NEET Scam in Tamil Nadu: HC grants bail to MBBS student; denies relief to father
Chennai: The Madurai bench of the Madras High Court has granted conditional bail to the prime accused student, who was arrested for allegedly securing MBBS admission at Theni Medical College via impersonation in the NEET 2019 exam.
The medico was arrested along with his father and both were produced before the court by the Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID) wing of the Tamil Nadu Police. The court has, however, denied relief to the father.
Medical Dialogues had been reporting about this fraud wherein the Theni Medical College’s medico was booked under IPC Sections 419, 420 and 120 (B) for alleged impersonation in NEET. The matter was forwarded to the Selection Committee of the Directorate of Medical Education (DME) and the cops on the basis of the complaint filed by the Theni Medical College Dean Dr AK Rajendran.
The investigation into the matter kept on unfolding unexpected twists, wherein a doctor, who was allegedly liaisoned with an agent who facilitated the impersonation; a Keralite agent; four more MBBS students and their parents also fell under the scanner of the CB-CID.
Read Also: NEET Scam: 2 medical colleges Deans to face inquiry; MBBS students, parents allege threat calls by agents
A proxy candidate had allegedly appeared for NEET instead of the MBBS student, who joined the Theni Medical College, based on the marks secured by the hired man in the exam. Apart from the use of proxy candidates, other angles like fudging NEET score were also being looked into in the case.
The medico has also applied for an anticipatory bail which was rejected by the High Court a few weeks ago. When the medico’s bail plea came up during that hearing, the HC bench had observed that his father was the prime defaulter. The accused medico’s father is reportedly a practising physician at Government Stanley Medical College Hospital at Chennai. The MBBS student and his parents were further arrested by the CB CID officials.
It had come to fore that the impersonator had attended the MBBS classes for the first 20 days, following which the accused student took his place.
The HC had further slammed the CB CID officials for not taking the MBBS student into custody though it was more than 15 days since he was arrested.
Read Also: Tamil Nadu NEET Scam: High Court pulls up CB CID for not taking accused MBBS student into custody
During the recent hearing, the HC granted bail to the medico and remarked, “The accused (father) appears to have drawn inspiration from the Tamil movie Vasool Raja MBBS.” In the 2004 film Vasool Raja MBBS, actor Kamal Haasan played the protagonist who hires a comedian to clear entrance examination to get admission into a medical college.
The Court said that the National Testing Agency (NTA) records indicate that the impersonator had written the exam for the student in Mumbai and also for himself in Chennai, reports HT
The bench also recalled the CB-CID’s statement that the father was not cooperating with the investigation and that he was yet to reveal the name of the impersonator engaged by him to write the examination in his son’s stead. Pointing out that the investigation is at a crucial stage and the modus operandi of the accused is yet to be established, the judge stated that the court is not inclined to grant bail to the medico's father and dismissed his petition.
However, the judge opined, “The student appears to be a ‘victim of his father’s deeds’ who seems to have manipulated and manoeuvred the whole offence while the son just played along”. Also, considering the age of the petitioner and his future, the judge allowed the bail petition of the student, on condition that he has to appear before the Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) of CB-CID, Madurai, at 10.30 am every day, reports TNIE
Recently, alert with the NEET impersonation scandal, the Tamil Nadu Directorate of Medical Education (DME) has ordered all the medical colleges in the state to collect thumbprints of the first year MBBS students for detailed forensic scrutiny to ascertain if the students appeared for the eligibility test or not.
Also read:- NEET Scam in Tamil Nadu: DME orders all Medical Colleges to gather thumbprints of 1st year MBBS students
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