Dehradun, Sep 22 Police arrested two people, including a candidate’s father, in connection with a case involving admission to medical colleges in Uttarakhand using fake ‘freedom fighter dependent’ certificates, officials said on Tuesday.
Dehradun Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Pramendra Singh Dobal told reporters at a press conference that they have identified the accused as Rupesh Pandit, 30, a resident of Meerut in Uttar Pradesh, and Arvind Kumar, a resident of Laksar in Uttarakhand’s Haridwar district.
Dobal said based on evidence gathered during the investigation, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) summoned Pandit and Kumar to the Raipur police station for questioning and subsequently arrested them. He said Pandit had been running an ‘education consultancy’ with his associates for the past five years and operating a company named ‘Mikodo Pathshala’ in Meerut.
The official said Pandit used his firm to facilitate admissions — on a commission basis — to courses such as MBBS, BTech, BCA, BBA, and BCom at various private universities in India and abroad. He said the interrogation revealed Kumar had contacted Pandit to secure admission for his daughter, Pari, and the children of two other acquaintances.
The SSP said the deal for each admission was finalised at ₹45 lakh, with an advance payment of ₹20 lakh collected for each. He said the remaining amount would be paid after the MBBS admission was secured and classes commenced.
Dobal said Pandit, along with his associates, had forged ‘freedom fighter dependent’ certificates prepared for the three candidates based on fabricated documents.
The SSP said police registered cases on September 13 at the Raipur and Clement Town police stations in Dehradun. He said the cases concern online applications submitted by various candidates on the ‘Apni Sarkar’ portal for ‘freedom fighter dependent’ certificates, based on forged documents.
The official said the documents provided during the investigation were forged.
Police formed an SIT led by Superintendent of Police (Rural) Jaya Baloni to investigate.
During the probe, Dobal said the addresses recorded in the documents of all accused candidates were incorrect. The team then examined documents from the relevant educational institutions and gathered information on the candidates’ bona fide addresses.
The matter gained significance because the state’s medical admission and counselling process is currently underway. Following allegations that fraudulent permanent residence and freedom ‘fighter dependent certificates’ were used to gain admission in medical colleges, Medical Education Minister Subodh Uniyal on Saturday, 19, directed the Dehradun district magistrate to conduct an enquiry and submit a report within a week.
Pradeep Bahuguna, who has been raising the issue, met Uniyal last Friday and submitted a list of approximately 350 candidates, demanding a detailed investigation into their certificates.
Bahuguna clarified that he is not claiming that all candidates on the list have fake certificates. He maintained that available records and admission-related information raise suspicions regarding these cases, necessitating official verification of the documents.
(PTI News)
