The Institute of Medicine (IoM) has decided to conduct re-examination of MBBS entrance exam on December 2.

The decision was taken by IoM’s entrance examination committee on Monday, a day after the IoM declared void the MBBS entrance examination held on October 14.

Following confirmation that the question papers of the test were leaked and there had been anomalies in the MBBS entrance exam, the Tribhuvan University (TU) Executive Council had authorised the IoM under the TU to take call on the legitimacy of MBBS entrance exam held in October.

In this connection, the TU had dispatched a letter to the IoM on November 16 stating that there had been irregularities in the entrance exam and that it should take “necessary actions”.

Four days later, the IoM declared void the MBBS entrance exam on November 19.

Over 15 students and fraudsters were arrested from various exam centres on October 14 for using sophisticated wireless devices to cheat. The IoM then had decided to withhold the results to carry out an investigation.

Acting on the police investigation report, the medical council and the executive council of the university had concluded that the question papers were leaked and the entrance examination “invalid”.

The investigation showed that the racket involved in helping students to cheat the examination was found in possession of answers to 60 multiple choice questions. When police tallied the answers with the questions, 14 answers were found matching the question paper.

A total of 8,827 students had appeared in the entrance examination conducted by IoM for 625 seats of seven medical colleges. The examination was held in 17 centres across the country.

It was found that fake examinees were attending the exams in some centre while in others, students were found cheating using sophisticated wireless electronic devices.

Police have arrested three rackets for their involvement in the incident.

Investigations found that the students had paid as much as Rs500,000 to the fraudsters who had promised successful results. Police have filed a case under “organised crime”.

Many students who took the entrance examination had been demanding that the IoM conduct re-examination.