A syndicate of some medical college seat consultants got the Post Graduate Medical Entrance Test-2014 paper leaked and helped 25 candidates secure ranks in the top 100 by collecting crores of rupees from them, the CID said on Saturday.
While two such consultants, Kommuri Muneeshwar Reddy of Rayachoti in Kadapa and D. Sainath of Nizamabad, were arrested, seven PG medical seat aspirants were detained, said CID Additional DG T. Krishna Prasad at a press conference. “More consultants, brokers and some students who fraudulently secured ranks using leaked question papers are to be arrested,” he said.
As the demand was high for seats in medical colleges for graduation and post-graduation courses, the system of brokers emerged to exploit the situation.
Some consultants colluded to get the PGMET question paper leaked and trained seat aspirants at secret places by giving copies of the question paper and the key.
An MBA, Reddy started Vertex Consultancy here eight years ago. Now operating from Banjara Hills Road no. 2, the accused opened a branch in Bangalore also. He would contact students seeking seats in private engineering and medical colleges.
He came in contact with brokers V. Suresh and Baswaraj of Bangalore, Anuj Singh of Mumbai, Dhanunjay Kumar Chowhan of Bihar, D. Sainath and Bhushan Reddy of Hyderabad.
‘Training’ classesThey contacted students seeking seats in PG medical courses and struck deals involving crores of rupees. The demand for a seat in radiology was Rs. 1.5 crore, while it was Rs. 70 lakh in paediatrics, Mr. Prasad said.
As per the plans, brokers held training classes for candidates secretly at different locations in Mumbai and Hyderabad from February 25 to March 1.
“They would send the candidates into a room giving them the copy of the question paper with its key so that they could memorise the answers,” said Mr. Prasad.
They would ensure that the candidates didn’t carry mobile phones or gadgets to scan or take pictures of question papers.
Each candidate was trained in two to three sessions -- each of nearly three hours duration, spread over two to three days.
Two others to be held soonAfter the ‘memorising sessions’, the candidates were flown to Hyderabad to attend the test after taking back copies of the question papers. Twenty five ranks in the top 100 -- including ranks of 2, 3, 8, 12, 16, 25 and 28 -- were allegedly secured in this fashion. Mr. Prasad said other brokers and PG medical seat aspirants would be arrested soon. Not divulging details of how the PGMET paper was leaked, he said the CID would reveal the facts soon.
