In a nationwide crackdown, the Central Bureau of Investigation has conducted searches at more than 90 locations in a case against 73 foreign medical graduates, besides unknown officials of 14 State medical councils and the erstwhile Medical Council of India, for alleged use of fake qualifying certificates for their registration.
Among the alleged beneficiaries, 21 had taken their degrees from medical institutions in China, 14 from Russia, seven from Nepal, six from the former USSR, four from Kyrgyzstan, three each from Kazakhstan and Armenia, two from Romania and one from Nigeria.
The searches were carried out on the premises of the accused persons and suspects at different places in Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jammu & Kashmir, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Sikkim, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu.
Fake certificates
Based on a complaint lodged by the Health Ministry, the CBI on December 21 registered the case alleging irregularities in the registration of medical graduates with the medical councils on the basis of fake certificates of qualifying Foreign Medical Graduates Examination (FMGE) conducted by the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS).
The screen test is mandatory for the Indian citizens, who possess a primary medical qualification awarded by any medical institution outside the country and want to get provisional or permanent registration with the Medical Council of India or any State medical council on or after March 15, 2002. They are eligible to practice in India only after qualifying the test.
The NBEMS pro-actively searches for foreign medical graduates who might have resorted to unfair means for seeking registration. During an inspection, it detected a large number of cases wherein the candidates had not qualified, but they were registered with various State medical councils and the MCI. Subsequently, the Health Ministry sought a CBI probe.
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