NEET impersonation scam not limited to TN: Madras HC

Chennai: The Madras High Court on Friday said that the NEET impersonation scam could not have been confined to Tamil Nadu and suo motu made the Union Health and Human Resource Development ministries party to the case.

Suspecting that the case would have "all-India" ramifications, the High Court has sought a reply from the central government. So far, five students and their parents are alleged to have been involved in the admission scam for medical colleges, wherein aspirants hired proxies to write the entrance exam – the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET).

The scam had come to light last month after the Dean of Government Theni Medical College, A K Rajendran, received two emails on September 11 and 13 stating that MBBS student K V Udit Surya got admitted to the college by impersonation.

An inquiry was held by college authorities, and a police complaint was lodged and the case was transferred to CB-CID on September 28 by the state government.

Allegedly, a proxy took up NEET instead of Udity Surya and based on the marks secured by the hired man, he joined the Theni College.

Recently, Surya, and his doctor father, V K Venkatesan, a casualty medical officer and ENT surgeon at Government Stanley Medical College Hospital in Chennai, were arrested.

Also, four more MBBS students and their fathers had been arrested and it is suspected that some others may have also secured admission through foul means.

DMK president M K Stalin had demanded a CBI probe into the case "to bring out the truth" behind the murky episode.

The government was a mute spectator and announced a CB-CID probe for an "eye wash," and it will not render justice, he alleged.