2 lakhs for a UG medical seat and 2.5 lakhs for a PG medical seat, and you can become a doctor! That is the mantra 3 officials of RGUHS (Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences) and 1 tout were quoting as they sold medical seats! In light of the Vyapam scam, this seems like a drop in the bucket and yet makes medicos wonder – Were all those hours spent studying and cramming a waste of time considering how you could just pay for a seat or cheat your way into landing one?

The answer script tampering case at  (RGUHS) is opening up more and more, even as the Central Crime Branch (CCB) officials arrested these four individuals running the racket. The accused Devendra Gowda Patil and Dr. Shankar Gowda, both former Assistant Registrars for evaluation) and Jaya Madegowda, senior Assistant Registrar at RGUHS collaborated with Bhagirath Singh a tout.

Bhagirath Singh would pay Rs. 10,000 to get blank answer sheets before the exams. These would then be given to the students to fill out correct answers and handed over to the accused to be replaced before sending answer scripts for evaluation. Bhagirath charged Rs. two lakh to under-graduate candidates and Rs. 2.5 lakh to post-graduate candidates. This amount would then be shared among the four.

Right now, eight doctors and two staff members of private medical colleges have been found guilty. The doctors who had taken anticipatory bail, have been booked for involvement in this case as well. An anonymous call brought the Vice-Chancellor’s attention to this case who formed a team of doctors and found large scale irregularities. Based on the report, a complaint was filed in Tilak Nagar police station in 2014 and the case was later handed over to CCB for detailed enquiry.

The CCB had earlier arrested Dhananjaya and his associate V. Sridhar from Mysuru Medical College. Further questioning led to the arrest of Bhagirath Singh and three senior officials at the University.The accused have been taken into custody to find out possible involvement of others from various medical colleges across Karnataka. It is sad to see doctors involving in such malpractice and tainting the name of the very professions they represent. Earlier it was the students that needed to be monitored to prevent cases of cheating and other malpractice, but now even the very institutions and people in charge of conducting these exams have to be put under surveillance to ensure a fair chance is given to all candidates writing these exams. The mental trauma of candidates who have not been clearing exams due to such incidents can not be imagined or measured.

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