Amritsar, April 22
The police has arrested Amrik Singh from a place near Patiala, who was working as an agent for the Sirhind-based rice miller Devinder Singh Pappu, allegedly involved in the multi-crore CBSE PMT scam. The SP, City-I, Mr Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, said during interrogation, Devinder Singh revealed that Amrik Singh was working at his behest to allure aspiring medical students in Patiala.
He added that the police had also arrested Dr S.K. Bawa, running a PMT-CET academy under the name of BRC Institute. All three members of the group had been remanded in police custody till April 25.
According to police sources, the CBSE conducts the All-India PMT for admission to 2200 seats in medical colleges purely on the basis of merit. The group led by Devinder Singh, an Akali leader from Sirhind, claimed that they operated through a kingpin based in Delhi and allured about 300 students by charging each of them between Rs 11 lakh and Rs 15 lakh.
A diary of Devinder Singh, seized by the police from his hotel room last Saturday, had revealed the names of many important persons, politicians and doctors, besides agents, who were operating at his behest throughout Punjab. The police has been trying to unearth the nexus between officers of the CBSE and their main conduit so that those behind the racket are exposed before the commencement of the all-India medical entrance test scheduled to be held on April 27.
According to police, Devinder Singh has named a resident of Bihar, Sudhanshu Kumar, as the brain behind the scam who had been operating through a network of agents and middlemen in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.
According to a confession made by Devinder Singh, he had managed to get admission for a number of students during the past two years and had received substantial amounts, which he had shared with Sudhanshu Kumar, who would in turn pass these on to senior officers of the CBSE, who provided them the question papers two days before the entrance test.
