Admissions to medical, dental colleges: Three arrested for arranging ‘fake test’ in Peshawar

PESHAWAR: Thousands of parents were shocked on Sunday when they came to know about a paper leak prior to the test for admission to medical and dental colleges after the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) raided a house in Tehkal locality in the provincial capital and arrested the three members of a gang.

The gang members had arranged an examination centre a day earlier for a group of applicants and told them that they had obtained a paper of medical and dental colleges admission test (MDCAT) prior to the test.

The Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) had organised the entry test for admissions to the medical and dental colleges on Sunday.

Senior officials of the FIA told The News that they had learnt four days prior to the entry test that a group of people was in contact with some students and inviting them to Tehkal, saying they had obtained the paper for the entry test. “After going through some initial information about the gang, we planted our people and got access to the people and their location. We raided their location where they had arranged a fake test for 14 applicants, some of them girls,” said an official of the FIA.

Pleading anonymity, he said the examination centre was organised in a house where they had made separate arrangements for male and female applicants.

According to the FIA officials, they arrested three members of the gang identified as Saeedullah, son of Rahmatullah, head of the gang, Islamullah, son of Ihsanullah, and Hanif Khan, son of Masam Khan. The three men were reportedly present in the house, owned by uncle of Saeedullah Khan, where the applicants were attempting the paper. “We let the applicants go after a brief investigation. The female applicants left the place when our team raided the fake examination centre,” said the official.

He said the applicants told them that each of them had made a separate deal with the gang. “Under the deal, some applicants had paid Rs1.07 million, Rs1.08 minion and Rs2 million for each paper. The applicants were supposed to make payments after the entry test on Sunday,” according to the FIA official.

The FIA team seized the fake paper from the gang members and applicants, but they were not sure as if it was the same paper prepared by the PMC. “After seizing the fake paper, we made several attempts to get the original paper of PMC and compare it with the fake one,” an official said.

The accused Saeedullah during interrogation revealed that Rizwan, Irfanullah and Salman were their accomplices and the fake paper was shared by Rizwan through WhatsApp.

According to the FIA officials, these acts constitute offences punishable under section 419, 420, 468, 471, 109, and 34 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). “Once the original PMC paper is shared with us and we compare it with the fake paper, we would be in a better position to determine if the paper was leaked,” said the FIA official.

The incident had shocked thousands of parents of the applicants whose children had worked hard to attempt the entry test. “It hurt me and many other parents when I watched a news item on television that a paper was leaked. My daughter had spent several sleepless nights in preparation for the test and when I returned home after dropping her at the examination centre, I learnt about this shocking news,” a senior physician in Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) told The News.