New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has accused authorities in Odisha and West Bengal of not taking any action against the admission of ineligible candidates in certain private medical colleges under the NRI quota, despite the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) providing “categorical” information of “forgery”.
“Despite categorical information of forgery in cases of certain NRI sponsors provided by the Ministry of External Affairs MEA, no action has been taken by concerned state authorities,” the probe agency said.
The ED has unearthed a massive nationwide racket involved in the admission to MBBS courses through the NRI quota using fake documents.
In its probe, conducted with support from the MEA and Indian embassies, the ED found that private medical colleges offered about 18,000 admissions in the MBBS course to students who used fake documents. This was reported by NDTV.
It was revealed that these colleges paid agents to prepare fake papers, including embassy documents and bogus family trees. In many cases, the agents and the medical colleges used the same set of documents for several candidates.
The racket also involved some genuine NRI students who were paid money by agents so that their names could be used.
The ED raided such colleges and recovered several fake NRI certificates and stamps of notary officers working in the US.
Under the rules, the fees for admission under the NRI quota have to be paid by an NRI relative. However, ED unearthed that the fees in most cases were not paid by the NRI family members.
The agency has seized “incriminating” evidence during searches in this case in the past as well. According to the agency a fixed deposit worth Rs 6.42 crore of a private college in West Bengal was provisionally attached. The ED had also attached assets worth Rs 12.33 crore of some colleges and individuals involved in these alleged irregularities in the past.