Strict action recommended against 23 students in MBBS exam scam

A Board of Discipline, chaired by Dr SK Singhal, Director of Rohtak PGIMS, has recommended strict action against 23 MBBS students from a private college in connection with the MBBS exam scam that surfaced at Pt BD Sharma University of Health Sciences, Rohtak, (UHSR) in January.

“Since the Vice-Chancellor of UHSR is the authority for taking action in this case, the recommendation has been made to him following a recent meeting and discussion by the board members. This recommendation for strict action against 23 students is based on the handwriting experts’ report, which has found their link to the malpractice,” Dr Singhal told The Tribune.

The scam, first exposed by The Tribune, involves the smuggling of answer sheets during annual and supplementary exams from the secrecy branch of the university. The answer sheets were then re-attempted, tampered with and re-submitted to the secrecy branch to fraudulently secure passing marks. In total, 41 individuals, including 24 MBBS students of a private college and 17 university employees, were booked in February in connection with the scandal.

The show-cause notice to all the MBBS students last month stated that the preliminary enquiry committee into the case had pointed out that serial number of answersheet does not match with the number as written and signed on signature chart by the students during exam and there is also a possibility of tampering with the stitching. “On careful consideration of the enquiry report and the report submitted by handwriting experts, you seem to be involved in the exam scam,” read the notice issued by the Board Chairman to one of the students.

Sources maintained a team of handwriting experts collected handwriting samples from 30 MBBS students in May as part of the probe. The sample collection was conducted after most of them denied their involvement in the malpractice.