National
Entrance exam cheating case: Prolonged probe to affect TU’s MBBS calendar
An ongoing investigation into the anomalies in the MBBS entrance exam of Tribhuvan University has affected the entire admission process, making around 8,000 students wait in the wings just as there are only a few days left for the academic calendar to start.Manish Gautam
An ongoing investigation into the anomalies in the MBBS entrance exam of Tribhuvan University has affected the entire admission process, making around 8,000 students wait in the wings just as there are only a few days left for the academic calendar to start.
TU’s MBBS academic calendar starts in November.
Over 15 students and fraudsters were arrested on October 14 from various centres for using wireless devices to cheat in the entrance exam.
The Institute of Medicine (IoM) then had decided to withhold the results to carry out an investigation.
“The next step will depend on the outcome of the investigation. If any wrongdoing is found within our system, we will book the guilty and conduct re-examination. However, if the investigation allows us to go ahead with the entrance examination that has already been held, we will immediately publish the results and admission process will start,” said IoM Dean Dr Jagdish Agrawal.
The delay, however, could impact the entire academic calendar.
Generally, the classes begin from Mangsir 1 (November 17). But this time the IoM and affiliate medical colleges won’t be able to start MBBS classes from the usual date, as officials said they would need a window of at least 45 days after the results for students’ placements.
A team of Samir Kumar Jha, who is currently under police custody, had introduced sophisticated communication devices, which can be easily hidden, for cheating in the exam.
Police investigation had found that students had paid as much as Rs 500,000 to the fraudsters.
“We also recovered various devices and clothes used to hold the chips from the hostel of the IoM. It is not clear if the students had dumped the clothes without using them or after using them,” said SSP Dibesh Lohani, chief of the Metropolitan Police Crime Division.
A senior police at the Metropolitan Police Range, Teku, who is involved in the investigation, said there are circumstantial evidences of question paper leakage.
“We however cannot say whether the questions were leaked from the IoM or by some students who had left the examination hall early,” said the investigating officer.
Doctors and officials of the IoM had also come under suspicion after Saurav Kumar, an Indian national and resident doctor at the IoM, was arrested for abetting the entrance examinees.
Similarly, another MBBS student of Nepal Medical College, Jorpati was also arrested for taking the entrance examination. Gyanendra Thakur was arrested for taking the exam on behalf of Sanjaya Kumar Yadav.
The IoM had run its entrance examination from 17 centres—13 of them were in the Valley.
Only those students who pass this entrance test are eligible to apply for private medical colleges affiliated to the IoM. According to the IoM, around 9,000 students had applied for the entrance.