Of the 36 doctors who have been arrested for possessing fake higher secondary credentials, four have been found to have completed their MBBS from Nepal, raising questions over the credibility of the entrance examination run by universities. 

Dr Irshadul Haque, who was working at National Medical College, Nepalgunj, had completed his MBBS from the Institute of Medicine.

According to SP Dibesh Lohani, spokesperson for the Central Investigation Bureau, Haque has his higher secondary certificate from Firoj Gandhi College, Patna, but no student with such name was ever enrolled in the college.

Similarly, Dr Binita Mandal had completed her MBBS from Nepal Medical College, Jorpati, Dr Shree Ram Ghimire from Universal Medical College, Bhairahawa in 2006 and Dr Dinesh Kumar Shah had completed his MBBS in 2003 from College of Medical Sciences, Bharatpur.

All aspiring to study MBBS course should compulsorily pass the entrance examination of Tribhuvan University and Kathmandu University before they can enrol in colleges affiliated to the respective universities. However, none of these universities verify certificates of its applicants. In 2013, the IoM found that an Indian national pursuing postgraduate studies in radiology was “fake”, as he was not the student who had sat for the entrance examination, a prerequisite to study the course.

According to Dr Bimal Sinha, acting dean of the IoM, they cannot rule out the possibility that a fake students might have taken exams on behalf of other students.

“The screening process is rigorous for Indian students. But since we have thousands of Nepalis applying each year, we don’t have the resources and capacity to conduct such verification,” said Dr Sinha.

He said the IoM had recently tested fingerprint verification among the applicants of postgraduate programme at the IoM.

“But we are yet to test it among MBBS applicants,” said Dr Sinha.

Police urge public to report

KATHMANDU: Police have made an appeal to the public to report to the Central Investigation Department if any of the arrested doctors have incurred harm to anyone.

Among the 36 doctors who were remanded to five days custody on Sunday by the Kathmandu District Court, 10 of them had completed post-graduation in various subjects and were conducting complex surgeries.

Dr Dinesh Kumar Shah, a surgeon at National Medical College, Birgunj; Dr Saroj Kumar Singh, an orthopaedic surgeon at the Narayani Sub-Regional Hospital and Dr Ram Kumar Pradhan of National Medical College, Birgunj among others were involved in many surgeries.