Cheating in PGI exam: One more in police custody

Institute decides to withhold results of the entrance exam

Two days after arresting 15 people in an alleged examination cheating racket from PGIMER, the CBI on Monday produced one more person, accused of solving the leaked question paper in Patna, before the duty magistrate and secured a seven-day police custody for him. He was allegedly acting as "expert help" from the Bihar capital.

While PGI decided to withhold results of the entrance exam to the MD/MS courses, there was no clarity if these would be scrapped. "The decision on whether the exam would be cancelled or not has not been taken," said PGI spokesperson Manju Wadwalkar.

The "expert", Dr K Ghanshyam Reddy, was arrested by CBI sleuths in Patna from a hotel where he was allegedly waiting for the question paper to be leaked by the seven dummy women candidates who were appearing for the exam in Chandigarh on Saturday. He was remanded in police custody till November 19. "Dr Ghanshyam is pursuing PhD from a university in Vellore," said a CBI sleuth, adding that they were tipped about Reddy by the same source who had informed them about the scam.

CBI DIG Mahesh Aggarwal said, "The seven girls arrested by CBI are not medical students. They are doing graduation in different colleges in Andhara Pradesh. They were a back-up for each other so that if one failed to leak the paper, the other could do it."

While the scam left the fate of about 7,300 aspirants uncertain and raised questions over the invigilation process at exam centres selected by PGI, the hospital administration was yet to own responsibility.

Despite repeated attempts, none of the PGI officials including Director Yogesh Chawal, Deputy Director Administration Chetan P S Rao, Dean Dr Amod Gupta and Registerar Naresh Virdi could be contacted. "They are not available," said the spokesperson. "It was the alertness of PGI authorities who took the step of informing the police and the investigating agency in advance."

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