MD seat 'scam' at PGI: Court finds prima facie case against 27 accused

Ramkrishan Upadhyay

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 27

Inderjeet Singh, Special Judicial Magistrate, CBI, Chandigarh, has found a prima facie case against all 27 accused in a nine-year-old alleged MD seat scam of the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER).

While rejecting the discharge applications of two accused, the court has fixed December 6 as the next date of hearing for framing charges. The CBI had registered a case against all accused for the offences punishable under Sections 419, 420, 467, 468, 471, 120-B and 511 of the IPC after the scam came to the light in 2012.

The CBI had registered the case on the information that accused P Gurivi Reddy, Dr Gangadhar Reddy and Dr Kotesh entered into criminal conspiracy with each other and some unknown persons with an aim to cheat the PGI, Chandigarh. The entrance test of MD/MS for postgraduate medical courses in PGI, Chandigarh, was held on November 10, 2012, from 9 am to 12 noon, in which P Gurivi Reddy allegedly arranged certain dummy candidates, mostly women, to transmit image of question papers from the examination hall through electronic gadgets like Bluetooth device and button-hole cameras. The question paper was to be sent to Patna and Hyderabad, where experts namely Dr Gangadhar at Patna and Dr Kotesh at Hyderabad were supposed to solve the question papers and communicate back the solution to Gurivi Reddy stationed at a hotel in Chandigarh.

P Gurivi Reddy was having certain candidates with specialised gadgets, including cellphones, Bluetooth devices and earphones, which are fixed to their body and answers or multiple choice questions were to be communicated to the candidates sitting in the examination hall from outside.

As per the CBI, eight dummy girl students submitted application forms with fake names and different photographs with the PGI by impersonating themselves as students who completed MBBS, while they were never a student of medicine. All of them appeared for the examination after wearing specially stitched shirts containing electronic equipment and trying to leak the question paper. Most of them were caught from the examination centre and electronic equipment. The CBI has filed the charge sheet in year 2014. It also seized mobile phones and other gadgets used in the examination.

Ranbir Singh Rawat, counsel for the two accused, argued that no recovery of alleged specially stitched shirt was made from the applicants and that mere recovery of mobile phones does not reveal any offence committed by the applicants.

While opposing the discharge application, public prosecutor Narender Singh argued that at the time of framing of charges only a prima facie case was to be considered. He said oral and documentary evidence on record clearly spelt out a prima facie case against the applicants.

After hearing of the arguments, the CBI Court dismissed the discharge applications of both accused.

“The material on record in the form of documentary and oral evidence, which includes recovery memos, statement of witnesses recorded under Section 161 of the CrPC as alleged under Section 164, CrPC, provides a substantial ground to conclude the commission of prima facie offence punishable under Sections 419, 420, 467, 468, 471,120-B and 511 of the IPC by all accused,” says the court in the order.

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