The CBI on Thursday conducted searches at 91 locations across the country in connection with its investigation against several State medical councils and foreign medical graduates who were allowed to practise in India without qualifying a mandatory test.
The agency had registered an FIR against unknown officials of 14 State medical councils and erstwhile Medical Council of India (MCI) besides 73 foreign medical graduates who were allowed to practice medicine in India without qualifying the mandatory Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE), officials said.
According to norms, a foreign medical graduate must qualify FMGE/Screening Test conducted by the National Board of Examination in order to get provisional or permanent registration with the National Medical Commission or a state medical council to practice medicine in India.
The NBE sends its results to candidates as well as councils. When fake eligibility certificates were produced by these candidates, medical councils could have verified it from the results directly sent to them by NBE, they said.
The CBI has registered the case of alleged corruption, criminal conspiracy, forgery and cheating against unidentified officials of state medical councils, the erstwhile Medical Council of India, and 73 foreign medical graduates, the officials said.
The agency conducted searches at around 91 locations including at Delhi, Chandigarh, Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Bhatinda, Khanna, Karnal, Sawaimadhopur, Narvana, Hamirpur, Shimla, Jammu, Srinagar, Dehradun, Ghaziabad, Guwahati, Tezpur.
Searches were also conducted at Imphal, Sikkim, Rajpur, Patna, Munger, Mumbai, Jaipur, Sikar, Vijayawada, Warangal, Tirunelveli, Madurai, Bhopal, Nagpur, Buldana, Pune, Jalgaon, Darbhanga, Bhagalpur, Champaran, Begusarai, Bokaro, Vizag, Hajipur, Vaishali and Nalanda among others at the premises of certain Medical Councils as well as Foreign Medical Graduates (FMGs) which led to recovery of several incriminating documents, including fake Pass Certificates of the FMG Examination.
“The CBI had registered a case on December 21 against unknown public servants of State Medical Councils and MCI; 73 Foreign Medical Graduates and other unknown public servants/private persons on the allegations of irregularities in registration of Foreign Medical Graduates with Medical Councils in several States on the basis of fake certificates of qualifying Foreign Medical Graduates Examination conducted by National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS),” the CBI said in a statement.
It has been alleged that as many as 73 Foreign Medical Graduates, who failed to qualify the mandatory qualifying examination managed to get themselves registered with Medical Councils in several States, it said.
It was further alleged that registration on such fake certificates enabled the candidates to practice or to secure jobs with hospitals across the country. Investigation is continuing, it added.