Dehradun, Sep 24 Another accused was arrested on Thursday in connection with the Uttarakhand MBBS admission fraud case, taking the total number of arrests to three, including the alleged mastermind, police said.
Dehradun Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Pramendra Singh Doval told reporters that the Special Investigation Team (SIT), probing the case involving admissions to state medical colleges via NEET-UG using forged freedom fighter dependent certificates, arrested Dheeraj Kumar Srivastava (37).
Doval said the name of Srivastava, a resident of the Piplani area in Bhopal, emerged as an agent during the interrogation of Rupesh Pandit, the mastermind of the alleged scam arrested three days ago.
While searching Srivastava’s vehicle, approximately Rs 5.5 lakh cash was recovered, which was received from Pandit in exchange for securing MBBS admissions under the freedom fighter quota, the SSP said.
Another individual arrested by the SIT is Arvind Kumar, the father of a candidate named Pari, who had secured admission under the freedom fighter dependent quota.
Doval said that during interrogation, Srivastava revealed he runs an office named ‘MBBS Way’ in Piplani, Bhopal, through which he facilitates admissions, on a commission basis, for courses such as MBBS, BTech, BCA, BBA, and BCom at various private universities.
According to the police, Srivastava met Pandit in Uttarkashi two years ago, and the two accused have remained in contact ever since.
The SSP said that after Kumar contacted Pandit to secure MBBS admissions for his daughter and the children of two other acquaintances, Pandit subsequently spoke to Srivastava regarding the matter.
Doval said Srivastava discussed the matter with another individual who, while providing information about admission under the freedom fighter quota in Uttarakhand, arranged a meeting with an acquaintance known to have “good connections” within the tehsil and the court administration.
The officer said Srivastava, along with Pandit and other associates, allegedly facilitated the creation of forged “freedom fighter dependent” certificates for three candidates using fabricated documents, which were then used to secure MBBS admissions at various medical colleges across the state.
The SSP said SIT is thoroughly investigating all aspects of the case, and the strictest possible action will be taken against all the accused involved.
The MBBS fake degree case came to light after cases were registered on September 13 at the Raipur and Clement Town police stations in Dehradun.
These cases concerned separate candidates who had applied online via the ‘Apni Sarkar’ portal for freedom fighter dependent certificates using forged documents, which were subsequently found to be fake during verification.
An SIT was subsequently constituted under Dehradun Superintendent of Police (Rural) Jaya Baloni.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the addresses listed in the accused candidates’ documents were incorrect, Doval said.
The SIT then visited the respective educational institutions, seized all documents related to the accused, and gathered information regarding their actual addresses.
The SSP said Pandit and Kumar were arrested on September 21 based on evidence gathered during the investigation.
During interrogation, Pandit revealed that Rs 45 lakh was sought to secure MBBS admission for each candidate, with Rs 20 lakh collected as an advance payment.
(PTI News)
