A team of forensic experts is being formed to cross-check the fingerprints of first-year MBBS students of all medical colleges in Tamil Nadu. They will be verified with the records of the National Testing Agency (NTA) and shared with the State authorities in two weeks.
This comes in the wake of cases of impersonation in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) involving students from Tamil Nadu. So far, the CB-CID has arrested five students who had gained admission to two government medical colleges and three private institutions.
The State government had sought fingerprint records of students from the NTA last month.
“NTA has informed that they will send the fingerprints in two weeks’ time. In the meantime, the Directorate of Medical Education has directed deans of all medical colleges to obtain the fingerprint samples of students admitted to MBBS this year. We will get these ready so that we can cross-check as soon as we get the records from NTA,” an official said.
The college authorities were also instructed to take photographs of the students, the official added.
Following the instruction, deans of medical colleges have launched the process of obtaining the fingerprints from the students.
“We were given three days’ time to obtain them from all first-year students. Along with fingerprints, the students should fill a form. This should be in the presence of the dean, vice-principal and faculty members, and should be countersigned,” a college dean said.
Already, all medical colleges have completed verification of documents submitted by the first-year students.
