Two IAS officers, 11 others booked by CBI

NEWDELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered an FIR against two IAS officers and 11 others in connection with its probe into irregularities in admissions to postgraduate medical courses in private medical colleges in Puducherry.

Puducherry’shealthsecretary BRBabuandCentralAdmission Committee(CENTAC)chairman Narendra Kumar were booked alongwithsixothergovernment servants.Therestareoffice-bearers of medical colleges.

Theprobeagencysaidthepub- lic servants abused their official positionandenteredintoacriminal conspiracy with private hospital officials and allegedly cheated bona fide students who were issued provisional admission certificate during counselling by the CENTAC. These students were later denied the seats they were allocated.

According to the FIR, in all, 96 eligible students could not get admission because of the irregularitiesandtheirseatsweregiven to ineligible candidates after collecting ‘exorbitant admission fees’.

According to the FIR, though CENTAC issued provisional admission certificates, no efforts were made by public servants to verify the number of students who had not joined the courses. While calculating vacancies, it wasshownbytheCENTACcounselling authorities on their websitethatallthestudentswhohave issued with provisional admis- sioncertificateswereadmittedin the colleges.

Among the seven medical institutes, three are self-financing colleges and four are deemed Universities.

The CBI alleged that the fee committee had revised the fee substantially which could be charged from the government quota and management quota students by the three self-financing colleges. Besides, four deemeduniversitiesalsorefused to admit bona fide students in spiteofordersoftheMadrashigh court and admitted students not sponsoredbyCENTACbytaking huge fee.

ACCORDING TO THE FIR, IN ALL, 96 ELIGIBLE STUDENTS COULD NOT GET ADMISSION BECAUSE OF THE IRREGULARITIES