A Timeline: Over 10 arrests in Tamil Nadu NEET impersonation case

NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 14: Since September 18, when the first police case was filed in the case of alleged impersonation in the National Eligibility-cum- Entrance Test, the police has arrested 10 in Tamil Nadu. This group includes doctors, medical college students and their parents. Over a dozen students attending medical colleges in Theni, Chennai and other parts of Tamil Nadu passed the entrance test by using impersonators who took the test for them in other states.
Candidates allegedly engaged proxies to write the exam for them with the same credentials in other centres to get admission to medical colleges.
The matter came to light after senior officials of Theni Government Medical College in south Tamil Nadu received a couple of emails alleging that a student of the college had gained admission by using a proxy candidate to write the NEET 2019.
Following this, the dean of Theni Government Medical College Dean, A.K. Rajendran, lodged compliant with the Tamil Nadu police leading to a series of arrests.
Preliminary enquiries have revealed that the students paid ₹20 lakh each to the persons who appeared on their behalf. Except the photographs, all other credentials like the name, age, marksheet, address and other entries in the application were that of the students who engaged the proxy candidates.
It has dropped a question mark over the process of the exam itself which, in 2016, replaced most state and central-level entrance tests for medical education. On October 4, the Madras High Court took note of situation and a court case began. At the hearing, the High Court impleaded the National Testing Agency (NTA) which conducts the NEET.
Ironically, both the agency and the test had come in the wake of a massive paper leak in 2015-’16 – question papers for the All India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT) were leaked and circulated in electronic devices in 10 states prompting the Supreme Court to nullify the test altogether.
Control of the medical entrance test, and a number of such public competitive exams, shifted from the Central Board of Secondary Education to the NTA after its establishment in November 2017.
The NEET had been introduced first in 2013, largely in response to another colossal admissions scam, known as the “Vyapam scam” after the Vyavasahik Pariksha Mandal (Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board), Madhya Pradesh. However, it was struck down in 2014 due to opposition from several states that either conducted their own test or admitted students on the basis of their school exam results. It was reinstated by the Supreme Court in 2016 and NEET was held for all colleges, public and private, for the first time in 2017.
The latest scandal has emerged in Tamil Nadu which had put up the fiercest opposition to the centralisation of the exam and saw dozens of protests in 2017. “NEET has failed totally,” said Prince Gajendra Babu, a Chennai-based education activist and a staunch critic of the NEET. “If you are into the technology – now they say there will be biometric, face reading and so forth – even the criminal will get into the technology. They also rely on the technology. So technology is not the answer, school education is the answer. We will produce quality doctors if we reduce commercialization,” he said alluding to the argument that the introduction of NEET would reduce commercialisation.
However, according to reports, another “seat scam” has parallelly emerged in Karnataka where a former deputy chief minister and Congress party leader, G Parameshwara is allegedly involved.

Here is the timeline of the latest scandals and how they unfolded in the media:

September 11 and 13, 2019 | The Government Theni Medical College in Theni, Tamil Nadu, received two emails alleging its student, KV Udit Surya, 20, had passed NEET through impersonation.
September 18| Police registered a First Information Report against Surya. The FIR was based on a complaint filed by a Theni College dean. Surya’s photo in his college application did not match that on his NEET scorecard.

September 19, 2019 | Director of Medical Education, Dr. R Narayanababu orders an investigation into the alleged impersonation scam.

September 19/20 | Tamil Nadu Director of Medical Education asks all medical colleges to constitute special committees for the verification of MBBS students. Suriya’s family goes missing. Suriya is son of Dr K S Venkatesan.

September 23 | NEET Impersonation case transferred to Tamil Nadu Crime Branch-Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID).

September 24 | Suriya and his father appeals for anticipatory bail at Madras High Court on September 23. High Court's Madurai Bench denies anticipatory bail to Suriya. Court asks Suriya to surrender before CB-CID.

September 25 | CB-CID arrests Udit Surya and his father from Tirupati.

September 27 | George Joseph from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, arrested by Tamil Nadu police. Joseph runs a NEET coaching centre in Kerala’s capital is suspected to be the mastermind behind the whole impersonation scam. He allegedly arranged MBBS students to write the exam on behalf of real candidates.

September 28 | Tamil Nadu CB-CID took into custody three students and their fathers. The three attend three different medical colleges in the state – SRM College student Praveen S. and his father A K S Saravanan; Sathya Sai Medical College student Abirami Madhavan and his father, Madhavan; and Balaji Medical College student, Rahul and his father Davis.

September 29 | A Vellore based doctor who is alleged to be the conduit between the candidates and impersonators

October 03 | DMK President M K Stalin demands a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the NEET impersonation cases as middlemen and impersonators from other states involved.

October 04 | Two MBBS students, originally from Kerala, arrested from Bengaluru for writing the NEET exam as proxy candidates. The two wrote the exam for Udit Surya and Chennai native Mohammed Irfan. Irfan is a first-year MBBS student of Dharmapuri Government Medical College. Mohamed Shafi, Irfan’s father and a practising doctor, was also arrested.

A Division Bench of the Madras High Court impleaded the National Testing Agency and remarks that the NEET scam may stretch beyond Tamil Nadu.

October 09| Another major medical college admission scam breaks in Karnataka. The Income Tax department raids four colleges, in cash-for-seat scam. The colleges are Sri Siddhartha Medical College, Sri Siddhartha Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre, Sri Devaraj Urs Academy of Higher Education and Research, and RL Jalappa Hospital and Research, reported NDTV.

October 10 | Theni Judicial Magistrate dismissed bail pleas of Surya’s father, reported The Hindu.

October 11| A NEET coaching centre in Namakkal, Tamil Nadu, raided. Rs 30 crore unaccounted cash seized.

October 12 | The Tamil Nadu CB-CID arrests a female MBBS student and her mother from Chennai for allegedly tampering mark-sheets to produce fake documents for admission.

October 12 | Income Tax officials raided properties, including a medical college, belonging to former Karnataka deputy chief minister and Congress party leader, G Parameshwara.
Soon after, his personal assistant allegedly committed suicide in Bengaluru.

October 13| Senior Congress leaders, G Parameshwara who is the trustee and Chancellor of Sri Sidhartha group of institutions Sri Siddhartha Medical College and Sri Siddhartha Institute of Medical Sciences and Research to be questioned on the alleged seat blocking scam on October 15.

October 14| Directorate of Medical Education asks all medical colleges to collect three samples of thumb imprints of all first year medical students for forensic analysis.