RAJEEV SHARMA

Jammu, Aug 21: Unearthing a major scam, Police on Saturday arrested seven persons for allegedly appearing as ‘proxy candidates’ in a medical examination against payment seats for Acharya Shri Chander College of Medical Sciences and Hospital (ASCOMS) in Jammu University.
Official sources said that all the ‘proxy candidates’ were non-local and are believed to be part of a major nexus involving some top guns.
The private college is already under dock for allegedly showing dead people on the inpatient role of the hospital and a case has already been registered against it.
Sources claimed that the police is investigating the role of the college in the scandal and has sought all the record from the management. The examination for the payments seats were being earlier conducted by the Board of Professional Examination (BoPE) but recently government constituted a committee and empowered the college management to conduct the examination independently.
The arrested ‘candidates’ allegedly impersonated examinees to help them clear Common Entrance Test (CET) for MBBS and BDS courses-2010 conducted by a Committee headed by a retired Justice.
Official sources said police received information from the invigilators at Jammu University, where two Centres for the examinations were established, that photographs on the admit cards carried by these candidates were not matching with the photographs in their record.
“Police conducted a raid and picked up five `proxy candidates’ for impersonation. One of the candidates broke down and informed that more candidates were appearing on behalf of some examinees at other centre established in Jammu University,” official sources said.
On further investigation it was learnt that the daughter of a Congress leader was also among those on whose behalf a proxy candidate was appearing.
According to the invigilators, the impersonations came into light when examiners started comparing photographs on the application form and the admit cards possessed by the candidates, sources preferring anonymity said.
“To check the malpractice of impersonation different teams were established to keep a vigil on the suspicious students. The identity of few candidates was questioned by the staff in examination hall when they compared the photographs on admit cards and official records. Seven cases of impersonation were discovered. We have disqualified these candidates from the examination and handed over the matter to police for further investigation”, Director Prof J R Rathore told Greater Kashmir.
The arrested persons were identified as Jabar Singh, Satyendra Singh, residents of Bihar, Om Prakash, resident of Rajasthan, Mobeen,  resident of Lucknow, Sheetal Gupta, resident of Malviya Nagar, Bhopal and Shruti Gaur of Mathura.
The original examinees were identified as Arshi Kiran, Huma Tabassum and Lobesh Bharat, all residents from Jammu, Takshay,  Sneh, from New Delhi, Muhammad Sadiq from Aligarh and Rohit Saini, resident of Kotla Kala, Himachal Pradesh.
The accused has been identified as Lalit Kumar who was impersonating for Takshay (roll number 100408), Satyendra Singh was impersonating for Muhammad Sadiq (roll number 100402), Om Parkash was impersonating for Rohit (roll number 100417), Mobeen was impersonating for Lobesh Bharat (roll number 100048), Sheetal Gupta was impersonating for Arshi Kiran (roll number 100008), Shruti Gaur was impersonating for Huma Tabssum (roll number 100024) and Jabar Singh was impersonating for Sneh (roll number 100508).
Sources said the main kingpins, Kunj Bihari and Hemant who had brought the impersonators to Jammu and Kashmir, were still at large. “The kingpins had offered Rs 50,000 to impersonators for appearing in the exam,” said sources.
Police have registered a case under section 419, 420, 2/5 Prevention of Unfair means Examination Act in Nehru Police Post.

Lastupdate on : Sat, 21 Aug 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 21 Aug 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sun, 22 Aug 2010 00:00:00 IST