The Madras High Court on Friday ordered that thumbprints of all students admitted to medical colleges in Tamil Nadu be submitted to the Crime-Branch Crime Investigation Department (CBCID). This is in light of the impersonation scam unearthed in September this year where medical aspirants were found using proxies to write and pass the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET). A Bench of justices N Kirubakaran and P Velmurugan also impleaded the Income Tax Department in the investigation since raids in coaching centres in Bangalore and Namakkal district, Tamil Nadu had seized 'huge cash' amounts.
The court has ordered the thumb impressions from the medical colleges to be matched with those submitted to the National Testing Agency (NTA). Soon after a student named Udit Surya and his parents were arrested last month, the CBCID detained more students and an agent under suspicion of impersonation, blowing the lid off a larger racket that could be spread across the country.
The counsels for Saveetha Deemed University and Christian Medical College (CMC, Vellore) appeared before the court and stated that they would file the list of candidates who have been admitted in the college to the NTA. The NTA submitted that it had given the thumb impressions of 4,250 to the CBCID, as the court had previously asked.
The order said, “All the colleges viz., Government, private and Deemed Universities shall send the list of admitted students to National Testing Agency by email address viz., ntaneet-ug@nic.in on or before 30.10.2019. On receipt of the same, the National Testing Agency shall forward the original thumb impression of all the candidates viz., students admitted in Government Medical College, Private Medical College and Deemed Universities in Tamil Nadu to the CBCID before the next date of hearing.” (sic)