3 arrested for facilitating Fraudulent Registration of FMGs
New Delhi: Three persons have been arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation for allegedly facilitating fraudulent registration of medical graduates from abroad, who could not clear the mandatory Foreign Medical Graduates Examination (FMGE).
CBI nabbed two persons- Ashok Kumar Choudhary and Ashu Kumar in Delhi and the third one Arun Prakash Mondal had to be tracked down to Betul in Madhya Pradesh.
Allegedly, they used to operate as middlemen and help such FMGs get registration to practice in India, who could not clear the FMGE test. Currently, all the three people arrested by CBI are in the judicial custody, adds The Hindu.
As per the rules, after March 15, 2002, it is mandatory for the Indian citizens possessing a primary medical qualification awarded by foreign institutes to clear the FMGE conducted by the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS).
The initial investigation by the Bureau has revealed that one of the modus operandi that the candidates had adopted was to submit forged documents to the State Medical Councils while claiming that they were already registered with the erstwhile Medical Council of India (MCI), now National Medical Commission (NMC).
When the State Councils would approach MCI for confirmation, the middlemen used to intervene and send bogus responses to support the case of the candidates.
While commenting on the matter, an official told The Hindu, “They would prepare fake pre-2014 registration certificates whose records were not maintained online at that time. The State Councils would seek a confirmation from the MCI. However, the middlemen used to intercept the communication and send bogus responses showing that the certificates were genuine.”
The Bureau is also investigating the roles played by the State Medical Councils in this regard, adds the daily.
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that, erstwhile MCI and several State Medical Councils had come under the lens of CBI after the Union Health Ministry had asked the Bureau to investigate how around 73 Foreign Medical Graduates obtained their registration to practice even without clearing the FMGE. On the basis of the complaint from the Union Health Ministry, CBI had started its probe against 14 state medical councils and those 73 foreign medical graduates.
The list of alleged beneficiaries included 21 FMGs from China, 14 from Russia, seven from Nepal, six from the former USSR, four from Kyrgyzstan, three each from Kazakhstan and Armenia, two from Romania, and one from Nigeria.
The National Board of Examination had intimated the Ministry of Health that 73 such medical graduates who did their MBBS from foreign countries such as Russia, Ukraine, China, and Nigeria during 2011-22 have not qualified its examination and yet got registration from various state medical councils.
Back in December 2022, CBI had conducted raids at 91 locations in this connection and the agency had found 28 more Graduates who had obtained fake certificates from various State medical councils.
