PG Admission Scam: 5 Officials plead innocence, surrender before judge

Puducherry: The Special Judge, Puducherry saw five government officials surrender to him recently.. The surrender came as compliance to the anticipatory bail granted by High Court related to the alleged postgraduate medical admission scam that they are believed to be involved in. The five names include those of former Health Secretary, Convenor, Health Director, and two other Centac officials

A recent report in TOI states that Director of Health and Family Welfare Services cum Director of Medical Education- Dr K V Raman, Director in-charge- Indira Gandhi Government Medical College and Research Institute, Former Health Secretary- B R Babu, and Centac Convenor- Dr V Govindaraj, Joint Convener- K Pajaniradja alias Kichena and Centac Coordinator- M Jonathan Daniel, all members of the committee-Medical Admissions surrendered before Principal Sessions Judge Rama Thilagam, the Special Judge appointed in the case filed by the CBI. All of them were granted release on bond executions, as directed by the High Court.

The CBI had taken on the case based on a complaint by Lt Governor Kiran Bedi, connected with PG medical admissions in private colleges.

A case was registered in September under Section 120-B, read with 420 of IPC, and Section 13 (2), read with Section 13 (1) (d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, against the five officials along with Centac-Chairman, G Narendra Kumar and managing directors of private medical colleges for alleged irregularities in medical admission.

The CBI claims that the accused entered into a criminal conspiracy with private medical colleges between March and July 2017 with regard to admissions in PG medical courses in the UT and facilitated the admission of students not sponsored by the Centac, reports TOI.

The charge against the officials was that they had cheated students with provisional admission certificate by not allotting them seats and instead facilitating private medical colleges to admit students who were not sponsored by the Centac by collecting exorbitant fees

The officials in their defense said “A verification of records would demonstrate that there was no violation of directions of Government of India, Government of Puducherry, Medical Council of India or the Supreme Court. No blemish whatsoever can be attributed to us in the role and be functioning as officials of the Centac or otherwise.”

Subsequently, after hearing their pleas, bails were granted to them.