NEW DELHI:
Delhi Police
has seized the computers of two officials of deputy secretary rank posted at the
National Medical Commission
and questioned 6-7 senior officials of the panel and some medical colleges as part of their probe into the alleged illegality in increasing the number of medical seats, police sources said on Saturday.
A day after TOI broke the story of the massive racket, police officers confirmed that the investigation and technical teams of the National Cyber Forensic Laboratory had inspected NMC’s office in Dwarka.
“We have also sought the CCTV footage of cameras installed at the office of NMC’s MARB (Medical Assessment & Rating Board) and the details of the visitor’s register maintained at the gate,” a senior officer told TOI on Saturday. This would help the cops rule out any unauthorised entry to the premises of NCM on the days when the letters permitting the increase of seats were sent to the medical colleges.
At Dwarka, police took into possession the computers used by Sameer Sinha, then deputy secretary (MARB-NMC), and Prabhat Kumar, then undersecretary. “The computers were seized for forensic analysis and to rule out any tampering and unauthorised access,” said a senior police officer. The two officials were questioned during which they denied having sent the mails.
Besides the footage,
Delhi Police
is also learnt to have asked NMC to provide the original and certified copies of the public notices and letters of permission that were issued by them. This will be compared with the ones that were issued to the colleges.
The cops are probing several senior NMC officials besides 4-5 medical colleges for involvement in the racket. “The increase in seats was for courses like MBBS, MD and MS. One college was permitted to increase the seats in MS ophthalmology from five to 10, in MD general medicine from seven to 24 and in MS-ENT from one to 4 seats,” an officer revealed. The cops are yet to disclose the exact number of seats that were fraudulently increased at various colleges.
The letters of permission were detected last August after which NMC carried out an enquiry and also filed a police complaint. An FIR was registered under IPC for criminal conspiracy and cheating and under Section 66C of the Information Technology Act.
The FIR was filed by AK Singh, deputy secretary, MARB-NMC. In his complaint, Singh said that forged letters of permission were issued to various medical colleges through the official email ID of the commission.
The mail ID ([email protected]) belonged to an official of the rank of deputy secretary who had earlier looked after the affairs at MARB. In the internal enquiry, one of the officials denied having sent any email or issued any such permission letters. It was also reported that another official had allegedly increased the seats of several colleges on NMC’s website.
NMC had inserted a notice on its website last year in August asking colleges to not consider these permission letters as valid. “It is clarified that the said letters have not been issued by the member/president, MARB. These letters are forged/fake and cannot be considered as valid permission from the Medical Assessment and Rating Board, National Medical Commission,” the notice said.
The cops said they were at an advanced stage of investigation and arrests were likely soon. Police commissioner Sanjay Arora is monitoring the probe.
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