MBBS Admission Scam: Former Dy CM G Parameshwara’s Family-Run Colleges Among 4 Institutions That ‘Sold’ Most Seats 

At least four among the top five medical institutes facing allegations of having sold MBBS seats in a suspected Rs 300 crore admission scam are based out of Karnataka and owned by state Congress leaders, The Times Of India reported.

Sri Siddhartha Academy of Higher Education, Bengaluru and Sri Siddhartha Medical College, Tumakuru, both owned by a family owned trust of Congress leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Of Karnataka Dr. G. Parameshwara, faces allegations that it illegally converted the government-quota seats allotted under the National Eligibilitycum-Entrance Test (NEET) into management quota

The two medical colleges run by the former Deputy CM’s family have a combined MBBS intake capacity of 300 students. Atleast 185 out of these approved seats — more than 60% of the seats - were allegedely filled through the management quota. Each seat was sold for as much as Rs 50 to 75 lakh, pegging the whole scandal at Rs 100 crore for the year.

The modus operandi involved subverting the approved medical admisison process by persuading accomplished students with high National Eligibilitycum-Entrance Test (NEET) scores to pick seats in the college and ‘hoard’these selected seats until multiple rounds of seat-selection (first, second and mop-up rounds) were completed.

Once the NEET admission process is officially complete, the students would be encouraged to give up their MBBS seats in the private university and seats would be retrieved back by management to be filled with students of their choice.

Over 10 lakh students appeared for NEET this year. 30,000 MBBS seats were bagged by the top 50,000 rank-holders in the country. At the end of the mop-up rounds, about 1.50 lakh students were able to get admission in colleges. The total number of official MBBS intake at the end of the admisison process stood at 1.5 lakh

After the closure of the admission, students with high ranks dropped out as per plan and students with as low rank as 5 lakh or 8 lakh-plus were able to get into the Siddhartha Medical College. Students of low-merit, who had already booked their seats through touts, made the grade.

Parameshwara’s nephew, Dr GS Anand, who manages the family’s education businesses, has reportedly confessed to the ‘modus operandi’.

Earlier last month, Income Tax officials conducted simultaneous raids at several places in Karnataka and Delhi, including on the residence Parameshwara followed discovery of cash transactions on a large scale related admissions under the management quota in August. I-T department deployed about 150 officials to conducted searches at 28 premises in Bengaluru, Tumakuru and Kolar in Karnataka, as well as in Delhi. They searched the residence of Parameshwara’s nephew, Dr GS Anand, as well

Days after the raid, Parameshwara’s close associate, Ramesh committed suicide. This resulted in a political slugfest with Congress targetting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home minister Amit Shah-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre for allegedly misusing investigating agencies to silence and target political opposition.

After initially alleging vendetta, Parameshwara said that he does not play a very active in the day-to-day functioning of the colleges and is unaware of any malpractice in admissions.

Sri Devaraj Urs Medical College, a medical college owned by senior Congress leader R.L Jalappa also faces similiar accusation. The institute was also searched by the income tax department in October in the seat scam case.

According to preliminary estimates IT authorities, the scale of MBBS admission scam could be as high Rs 300 crore