MBBS exam scam: Students from four batches of private college under scanner

The MBBS examination scam at Pt BD Sharma University of Health Sciences, Rohtak (UHSR), has widened, with students from four consecutive batches of a private medical college now implicated in the scandal. During police interrogation, one of the main accused disclosed the involvement of students from the 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 batches, shedding light on a deep-rooted nexus of academic fraud, sources said.

The scam, which surfaced in January, revolved around the manipulation and tampering of answer sheets to secure passing marks in exchange for hefty amount of money.

“During police interrogation, the accused admitted that students from the 2020 to 2023 batches were involved in the malpractice. Deals were made either directly with the students or through intermediaries to ensure favourable exam results,” said an official, requesting anonymity.

He said supplementary examination answer sheets of six students from the 2020 batch and five students from the 2021 batch were re-written using erasable pens. These sheets were smuggled out on the same day as the exams, reattempted at the residence of a UHSR employee, and later clandestinely re-submitted to the university.

Further, the accused claimed that 10 students from the 2021 batch and four from the 2022 batch paid Rs 2 lakh per subject through a middleman under what was termed the “direct system” — a method involving manipulation of the award list just before the declaration of result.

The accused also admitted to deals being struck for 34 subjects across the 2021 to 2023 batches, although successful manipulation occurred in only 18 of those subjects.

In another instance, a student from the 2020 batch allegedly passed a subject through rechecking after paying Rs 2 lakh to a Class-IV employee in the university’s secrecy branch. “Additionally, the accused collected Rs 2 lakh each from three students of the 2021 batch and two students of the 2022 batch through fellow students acting as middlemen. All these students were allegedly passed using the ‘direct system’ method,” the official said.

In a particularly audacious case, six answer sheets of a single student were smuggled out in 2022, re-written, and resubmitted, further exposing the scale of academic corruption.

Haryana Tribune