National
MBBS candidates paid up to Rs500,000 for entrance ‘help’
MBBS candidates had paid as much as Rs300,000 to Rs500,000 to fraudsters who had promised aspiring students to help with their entrance test through wireless devices.MBBS candidates had paid as much as Rs300,000 to Rs500,000 to fraudsters who had promised aspiring students to help with their entrance test through wireless devices.
Police arrested 16 people on Saturday for abetting the medical education candidates. According to the Metropolitan Police Crime Division (MPCD), Teku, Samir Kumar Jha, 39, a Nepali man based in New Delhi, is the kingpin of the racket that violated the rules of the entrance examination conducted on Saturday by the Tribhuvan University Institute of Medicine (IoM).
Jha, who also imports medical devices, has confessed the crime saying that he has been into this malpractice for two years, said MPCD chief Senior Superintendent of Police Dibesh Lohani.
SSP Lohani said Jha and his teams introduced sophisticated communication devices that can be easily hidden by examinees. A chip containing SIM card should be somewhere in person. The chip is built in such a way that it automatically receives call in a single dial. A camouflaged copper wire is then taken to the collar of a clothing item. The magnetic device helps students hear the answer via a small wireless headphone placed in the ear.
Police said Jha’s accomplices would also attend the exam but they would leave the hall much early with the questions and send correct answers to their ‘clients’.
Jha, who had fled Kathmandu following the arrests of multiple fake examinees, was caught in Sindhuli.
One of the victims is Rahul Jha, 19, who had paid Rs300,000 on the promise of being provided with maximum correct answers.
The entrance examination is based on 100 objective questions.
“We found that students were lured to pay as high as Rs500,000, with an impression that they could be on the scholarship list and need not pay for their further studies at the IoM,” said SSP Lohani.
He said investigation so far has not pointed to involvement of IoM officials. Police are looking for the group in which Jha worked for a few years before starting his own illegal business.
Also, the Kathmandu District Court remanded the arrestees to five-day custody for probe into fraudulence and cybercrime.
Meanwhile, six doctors’ associations have expressed their concern over the
incident. They have demanded that the whole examination process be put on hold
until police conclude their investigation.
The associations said in a statement that such incidents will have a lasting impact on the students’ psyche. They have demanded another round of entrance examination.
Besides, thirty-three students who sat for Saturday’s test have demanded re-examination after the sophisticated cheating techniques were revealed.
The students have demanded stern action against the guilty.
IoM holds back results
The TU Institute of Medicine on Sunday said it has decided to withhold the results following the arrest of fake students and those using electronic devices in the examination hall. The IoM said there were eight fake students while three others had stealthily used wireless devices to access answers to questions.