Police on Wednesday arrested Chief Executive Officer of Pokhara-based Gandaki Medical College Santosh Khanal and Exam Controller Laxman Sharma after students pursuing MBBS at the college filed a complaint of fraud against the college administration.

The students had earlier warned of filing a forgery case against the college administration at Kaski District Police Office, alleging that the institute had charged them more in fee than what has been fixed by the government.

The college students had been protesting for over a month against the steep fee. Some of them even had gone to Kathmandu to put pressure on the concerned authorities to address their concerns.

DSP Om Bahadur Ranamagar said the police were investigating into the matter and would proceed with the case accordingly.

“The students in their complaint have also named college Chairman Khuma Prasad Aryal, Chief Administrative Officer Krishna Ghimire, Principal Rabindra Prasad Shrestha, Finance Controller Yubaraj Sharma, account officials Hari Poudel, Dinesh Poudel, Tilak Poudel and Krishna Poudel for overcharging,” said DSP Ranamagar. “We are searching for them.”

According to the students, the college had collected around Rs 455 million by making students from 2015 to 2018 batches pay more than what they were required to pay as per the ceiling fixed by the government.

In the complaint lodged with police, the students said the college charged around Rs 800,000 each from students of the 2015 batch. Similarly, students of the 2016 batch said the college charged them between Rs1 million and Rs1.3 million, while the 2017 batch students have already paid an extra amount between Rs200,000 and Rs600,000.

Students of the 2018 batch also said that the college had collected Rs300,000 from many students.

As per the government decision, medical colleges in the Kathmandu Valley should not charge more than Rs3.8 million while private medical colleges outside the Valley should not charge more than Rs4.24 million for the MBBS course.