Probe into NEET scam to go Pan India: Madras High Court

The HC bench observed that the fraud of NEET impersonation for acquiring MBBS Admission may have not been confined to Tamil Nadu alone, but may have spread all over India.

Chennai: Observing that impersonation in NEET may not have been confined just to Tamil Nadu but may have taken place across the country, the Madras High Court has impleaded the HRD Ministry and other authorities, including the state DGP, as respondents.

The court made the observation while hearing a petition filed against the order of a single judge dismissing his petition for a direction to the Tamil Nadu government to undertake proper counselling and a 'mop-up procedure' to fill the 207 management quota seats.

When the matter came up before the division bench, comprising Justices N Kirubakaran and P Velmurugan, the bench impleaded a medical college in Coimbatore and two in Chennai as respondents to the litigation and issued notice, asking them to reply by October 15.

During arguments, Abdul Saleem, senior counsel representing the selection committee, said two students were found to have impersonated and secured admission in a government medical college, while three had got admission in deemed universities.

The state CB-CID was probing the case, he said, to which the bench observed that the fraud may have not been confined to Tamil Nadu alone, but may have spread all over India.

It then impleaded the HRD ministry as a respondent.

The bench said the impersonation may have taken place with the involvement of some officials or people and directed the CB-CID to furnish details of the number of students who gained admission by fraudulent methods.

It also directed CB-CID to ascertain how many people helped students in the malpractice and whether any government officials or college administration were involved in this fraud.

The bench then posted the matter for further hearing to October 15.

Medical Dialogues had been reporting about this fraud wherein a 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; three more MBBS students and their parents also fell under the scanner of the CB-CID.

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 use of proxy candidates, other angles like fudging NEET score were also being looked into in the case, the CB-CID had said.

After questioning of the three, it came to light that a number of other students from Tamil Nadu had also used foul means to gain admission into colleges.

During preliminary inquiry, it was revealed that lakhs of rupees reportedly changed hands to help aspirants join MBBS through illegal means.