FIR lodged against 41 students, Saurashtra University dean

RAJKOT: The University Road police station on Thursday lodged an FIR against 41 students, Dr Amitabh Joshi, dean of Saurashtra University’s homeopathy department and principal of city-based BA Gangar homeopathy and “responsible” officials of two other colleges in the massive cash-for-admission scam busted earlier this week.
A person named Dr Kadri from Khambhaliya town who is alleged to have made the fake mark sheets and other documents of various universities has also been named in the FIR that was lodged late on Thursday evening.

On April 16, the internal probe committee of SU had busted the scam wherein at least undeserving class XII 41 students had secured admission in the Bachelors of Homeopathy Medicine and Surgery (BHMS) in BA Gangar college, BG Gariya homeopathy College and Amreli-based Vasantben Vyas homeopathy College using forged mark sheets of three non-Gujarat universities. Dr Joshi is the alleged mastermind of the scam that was thriving since 2012 as per the report.

However, SU’s claims that the accused would be booked under the more stringent section 467 (forgery of valuable security, will, etc), which provides for punishment up to 10 years extending to life imprisonment, have sounded hollow. “All the accused have been booked under section 473 of IPC ( making or possessing counterfeit seal, etc., with intent to commit forgery),” said M D Chandravadia, police inspector of University police station. The punishment under this section is up to seven years. SU hasnt been able to provide documents that could grill the fraudsters under the more stringent section.

The students used forged mark sheets, approval letter of Central Council of homeopathy (CCH) working under the AYUSH ministry to get admissions. Dr Joshi is alleged to have charged anything between Rs 3.5 lakh to Rs 7 lakh per admission. The fake mark sheets were of Vinoba Bhave University at Hazaribaug, University of Delhi, South Campus and BRA Bihar, Muzaffarpur.