Chandigarh, September 28
In an early morning operation, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested two junior residents of the PGI on the charges of fraudulently securing admission in the post-graduate course in one of the country’s top medical institutions.

The CBI action follows the exposure of the multi-crore admission scam by The Tribune today.

n The doctors quizzed by the CBI throughout the day and placed under arrest later. They would be produced before the special CBI court here on Wednesday. n The answer sheets used by the “impersonators”, who allegedly appeared on behalf of these doctors, procured. n PGI orders internal inquiry and reviews admission procedure. n Credentials of over 350 doctors in the PGI to be screened.

The DIG, CBI Chandigarh Zone, Mahesh Aggarwal said the two doctors have been identified as Dr Amit Musale and Dr Sujay Sonawane. He added that several other persons are involved in the scam for securing admission in a similar fashion. The preliminary investigations revealed that the suspects had secured admission in the post-graduation course through impersonation and manipulation, as The Tribune had shown.

In order to establish the further links of the organised racket involved in admitting aspiring candidates to the prestigious medical institutes through impersonation, forgery and manipulation, Aggarwal said searches had been conducted on the premises of one of the masterminds of the racket, Gaurav Shalin, in Mumbai and Bangalore. Several incriminating documents and other material have been seized during the searches, which point to wide reach of the racket.

The inquiries so far reveal that these doctors had obtained admission through an organised racket that assured admission in government as well as private medical colleges by charging hefty amounts running into tens of lakhs.

“The admissions to government colleges are clinched through impersonation. In such cases, some brilliant students, who are part of the racket, appear in the entrance exam in place of the aspiring candidates,” Aggarwal said. A team of CBI officials conducted a raid at the doctors hostel early this morning and picked up the doctors from their rooms.

The CBI questioned the doctors throughout the day and placed them under arrest later. They would be produced in the special CBI court here tomorrow morning.

Sources add that Dr Musale was doing his MD in pharmacology while Dr Sonawane was doing his MD in paediatrics. CBI sources added that they had also procured the answer sheets used by the “impersonators” who allegedly appeared on the behalf of these doctors. The CBI sources added that the signatures on the answer sheets would be matched with the handwriting specimen of the suspected doctors.

Sources add that the two have admitted before the CBI officials that they never sat for the entrance test and only came to the PGI on the day of the medical test at the final stage of admission. The two reportedly told CBI sleuths that they had paid only Rs 20 lakh each to the conduits for the admission.