Taking a leaf out of the Bihar board which conducted a proficiency test of its toppers following unearthing of a merit scam, the Uttarakhand Ayurveda University (UAU) here has also decided to conduct a similar test for the toppers of Uttarakhand Ayush Pre-Medical Test (UAPMT), the result of which was declared on Wednesday.
This step of the university is guided by busting of a gang by police on August 7, the day entrance examination of UAPMT was held. This gang charged money from the aspirants and impersonators gave examination in their places.
Following this exposure the university also found that many of students who are enrolled in BAMS courses in the colleges of the State have used dubious means to get admissions in past too.
A team of police conducted through probe in the Rishikul College of Haridwar and earmarked 27 such students. The police have arrested 10 students and are investigating the case further. It is learnt that fearing action many such students are absconding.
The registrar of the UAU, Mritunjay Mishra told The Pioneer that proficiency test of 50 top students of the entrance examination would be taken before the session of counseling. He said that the test would be taken by the subject experts. Mishra maintained that thorough checking of documents of the candidates would be done during the counseling.
There are 210 seats in I year of BAMS course which are offered by the Ayurveda colleges of the State. Priyanka Bisht of Dehradun with a tally of 163 marks out of 200 is the State topper in this year’s UAPMT examination.
The presence of impersonators in the entrance examination exposed the modus operandi of the gang.
In it the gang made an elaborate plan and impersonator with matching facial features was chosen to write the examination in place of the candidate.
The photographs of these impersonators were pasted in the application form in place of the aspirant so that the photograph in the admit card does not mismatched with the impersonator in the examination hall.
It is learnt that these impersonators even appear in the counseling sessions to ward off any suspicious.
One of the university official told that the presence of black sheep among the students of BAMS was detected when it was found that many of the toppers failed miserably in their internal examinations.
The arrested members of the gang have revealed that they used to charge a sum of Rs2 lakhs for providing solver for to aspirants.