PGI Chandigarh MD, MS Paper Leak Scam: CBI court grants bail one accused, issues warrant against another

Chandigarh: The CBI court recently granted bail to a woman while issuing a non-bailable warrant against another in a case of cheating and leaking PGI Chandigarh entrance exam question papers of MD and MS courses using hi-tech devices.

The conspiracy to leak the entrance exam question paper of MD, MS courses of PGI Chandigarh which were scheduled for November 10, 2012, was alleged executed by one Gurivi Reddy of Andhra Pradesh in collusion with Dr Gangadhar of Patna and Dr Kotesh of Hyderabad.

As per a media report in The Tribune, the trio had taken money from few of the candidates in exchange of the exam papers. Modus Operandi- they hired 14 dummy female candidates. The kingpin, Reddy had also booked these dummy student's tickets and arranged for their accommodation in Chandigarh. Two application forms for each of them were submitted under different names and their details were forged too.

On the day of the entrance examination, these dummy candidates were well equipped. Their clothes were customised to carry electronic gadgets. However, they were caught red-handed while passing on the question paper to Hyderabad and Patna for Dr Kotesh and Dr Gangadhar to solve it and communicate back the solved answers to the dummy via hi-tech devices installed in their clothes.

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All of them were booked by CBI for allegedly being involved in cheating and leaking of the question paper using hi-tech devices during the PGI Chandigarh MD/MS examination.

A charge sheet was filed in 2014 by the CBI against 32 accused in the matter and a case was registered under the sections 420 (cheating), 419 (cheating by personation), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc), 471 (using as genuine a forged 1[document or electronic record]) of the Indian Penal Code by the CBI in 2012.

On December 24, 2014, the CBI had filed a report against 26 persons under Section 173 of the CrPC. In the report, the names of 10 more persons were added, who were not charge-sheeted.

One amongst the accused was one P Lalitha, who claimed that she was falsely accused in the case, which was registered on the basis of source information. She alleged to be one of the 14 girls who had been hired by Gurivi Reddy, but she was one of those four girls who did not visit Chandigarh to appear in the examination. She added that she was not arrested in the PGI Chandigarh case and was neither charge-sheeted. However, she had been charge-sheeted vide the supplementary challan.

Thereafter, she was granted anticipatory bail by CBI ADJ court on September 2, 2019. Recently, she moved JMIC court and filed a regular bail application. As per a recent media report in The Tribune, the court granted her bail and observed;

"No useful purpose will be served by keeping the accused behind bars. Moreover, co-accused P Lalitha has already been granted anticipatory bail."

The bail was granted subject to furnishing bail bonds in the sum of Rs 1 lakh with one local surety in the like amount.

Another media report in The Indian Express, states that the court of Judicial Magistrate First Class Ravish Kaushik has issued a non-bailable warrant against the another accused Tirunagiri Shanthi in the PGI Chandigarh paper leak scam.

A third accused T Radha was arrested by the CBI from Hyderabad on September 13, 2019, for not appearing in the court. She has recently filed a bail application. CBI has now been directed by the court to file a reply on the bail application filed by her.

The court has scheduled for hearing the reply of the CBI on September 30.