PGMET scam: Governor orders CB-CID probe

• Question paper allegedly leaked by Gurivi Reddy gang
• Copies reportedly sold for `60 lakh to `1 crore each
• CB-CID sleuths swing into action
• Raid health university offices
• Role of varsity registrar under scanner
• JUDA demands that govt hold re-examination
• Threatens to boycott counselling
• Also warns of disrupting the whole process

Hyderabad: Governor E S L Narasimhan has ordered CB-CID probe into irregularities in the Andhra Pradesh Post Graduate Medical Entrance Test (AP PGMET).

Acting on the report submitted by Prof L Venugopala Reddy, the chairman of the one-man enquiry committee, the Governor asked the CB-CID to immediately start its work as the time to conduct counselling is fast approaching. Additional Director General of Police Krishna Prasad has met the Governor and the latter asked him to go in for a full-throttled probe into the scam and come out with a report soon.

Accordingly, the CB-CID chief formed as many as 15 teams and the sleuths have swung into action and conducted searches in the examination wing as well as the office of the registrar of the NTR University of Health Sciences and seized some documents on Monday night itself.

They also collected the complaints received by the LV Reddy probe team and are now in the process of classifying them. The CB-CID officials may make enquiries with a few medicos who had raised this issue first. Earlier in the day, the committee submitted its report to the Governor. Refusing to divulge the details, Prof L V Reddy merely told The Hans India that the alleged scam needed a further probe by an investigative agency which had handled such issues in the past. He reportedly submitted to the Governor that- “there are apprehensions among a large number of candidates that there is some foul play. The ranks of 11 candidates – eight of whom belong to Guntur and are of the same batch with same academic track record – suggest that it requires an in-depth inquiry by a professional body”. The probe committee also reportedly conveyed the suspicion of JUDAs that the role of university registrar cannot be ruled out in the scam.

It was alleged by some aspirants and some members of the Junior Doctors Association (JUDA) that the question paper was leaked and sold by a gang operating from Nizamabad and Bengaluru to a select few for sums ranging from Rs 60 lakh to 1 crore.

The finger of suspicion is directed once again at Gurivi Reddy, the infamous kingpin of high-tech copying act of 2010 in Chandigarh. A person named Jagadeep, who was involved in the Chandigarh scam, is allegedly involved in the AP PGMET scam and the CB-CID is learnt to have rounded him up.

The noose is slowly getting tightened around Babu Lal, the registrar of the NTR University of Health Sciences, whose role is under close scrutiny now. According to reports, he was already approached by the CB-CID officials and he along with his deputy may be grilled on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the JUDA expressed displeasure over the probe conducted by LV Reddy. They said what he had done was a mere postman job, by simply conveying their views to the governor. “We demand a re-examination. If it is not conducted again, we will totally boycott the counselling and we may stall the entire process,” they made it clear.