Maharashtra: Caste documents of 5 MD students being probed

Mumbai: A caste certificate scandal has surfaced recently, involving five post graduate medical students. The case of the five post graduates and their fictitious caste records has been brought to light in a letter sent by the Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER), to the Joint Commissioner and Vice –Chairman, Scheduled Tribe Certificate Scrutiny Committee (Nashik).

According to facts furnished by the DMER, one of them, a recent pass out from an MD course at Grant Medical College had submitted a caste certificate, projecting himself as belonging to the Schedule tribes(ST). The Scrutiny Committee on probing found that the ST caste certificate (carrying an issuance of the year 2007 from the Deputy Collector’s office,Osmananbad ) submitted by the medical student had actually been issued to somebody else. On further scrutiny it was discovered that the signature reflected on the certificate belonged to somebody who had never worked in the government office. The Joint Commissioner, Scrutiny Committee has directed the DMER to file a police complaint in this regard.

"We will have to lodge a police complaint. We have also asked the deans concerned to file police cases. Besides this, our internal probe is also on in this matter," said Dr P H Shingare, Director, DMER.

The Internal Probe Team, comprising of the Chief Administrative Officer, Officer on Special Duty and others are carrying out investigations in colleges where these students studied or are studying and have instructed the colleges to drop students carrying false credentials.

"The process to initiate serious action is on," said Shingare. He informed that if the probe reports them guilty, the authorities will recommend cancellation of their registration with the Maharashtra Medical Council.

"We feel this is a much bigger scam. It needs to be probed seriously since it involves medical students who are supposed to serve society ," said Tauseef Ansari, advocate for the person intervening in the MBBS case, as reported by the TOI.