The counselling process, held in three rounds, took place between February 1 this year to May 19. The Special Task Force (STF) of the Uttar Pradesh Police has launched an investigation into alleged “fraudulent admissions” at colleges for Ayurveda and Unani under the AYUSH department in the state through NEET-2021.
Till now, the AYUSH Department has found six students allegedly taking admission by unfair means.
A complaint was lodged by AYUSH Director SN Singh at Lucknow’s Hazratganj police station, in which it was alleged that during the online counselling for admissions for NEET 2021-22, some irregularities were found. “During the counselling for NEET 2021-22, ineligible candidates were given admission in UG courses. Kindly lodge a case against the agency – Uptron Powertronics in Lucknow and the vendor company named by it (V3 Soft Solutions Private Limited) whose representative is Kuldeep Singh,” stated the complaint lodged by Singh.
Police have registered an FIR against Uptron Powertronics, V3 Soft Solutions Private Limited and its representative Kuldeep Singh and unidentified people.
The FIR has been lodged under IPC section 120B (conspiracy), 420 (cheating), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (fraudulently or dishonestly used as genuine), and Section 66 of the IT Act.
An official said that the work for online counselling was given to Uptron Powertronics as the department of AYUSH doesn’t have an IT cell.
The counselling process, held in three rounds, took place between February 1 this year to May 19.
The firm, which was made the vendor company for this, was given the responsibility to complete the procedure and allot colleges to the students.
Officials said that a total of 891 first-year students, who took admission at Ayurveda, Unani and Homeopathy colleges in three under-graduate courses are under the scanner after the state government announced a probe into the admission.
“As per our initial information, candidates who did not have total marks above the cut-off also got admission…It is likely that someone from within the AYUSH department may have been involved,” said an STF official, adding that AYUSH officials involved in the counselling process will be questioned.
An STF official said that the details of the candidates in the counselling sheets were apparently changed so that admission could be given to non-deserving candidates in exchange for money. The admissions were done at Ayurveda, Unani and Homeopathy colleges in the state via NEET-2021.
An STF official said that the cheating was done by changing details in the server of the department. “The details of a candidate, who scored well, were changed and then they were replaced by non-deserving and fraudulent candidates. To ensure that the candidates whose details were changed were from outside the state to avoid complications and getting caught,” said the official.
“There were some candidates who did not take the NEET examination but got admission,” said the official.
“The details of around 1,181 candidates were altered on the counselling server. Out of this, there were 22 candidates who hadn’t even taken NEET 2021. Out of 1,181 candidates; 891 have taken admission,” said an official in the AYUSH department.