BANGALORE: Minister for Medical Education V.S. Acharya said here on Wednesday that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will take up investigation "within 15 days" into alleged malpractices in the post-graduate common entrance test of Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences held in April.

All relevant documents have been handed over to the CBI, he said.

Dr. Acharya was inaugurating a Biofermentor for Vaccine Production for the Karnataka Veterinary Animal and Fisheries Sciences University.

The inquiry committee appointed by the Government to go into the alleged malpractices in the PGCET for medical and dental courses said that some of the candidates had prior knowledge of the questions of the examination and the correct answers.

In its report, the three-member panel said it had made a close scrutiny and critical analysis of the candidates and came to the conclusion that they had prior knowledge of the questions and answers.

In the section titled "modus operandi", the committee said some of the officers or officials involved in the examination work for PGCET 20006 were deputed to Hyderabad, Chennai and Pondicherry to obtain questions and answers from the question paper setters. The committee said: "A lot of time was spent by these persons even to get half-handed questions." It said an examination of this magnitude conducted by the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) should be conducted in secrecy and confidentiality as is usual in a common entrance test (CET)."

When such examinations were conducted, special officers personally selected the question papers and secured the manuscripts/questions and answers in separate sealed covers.

Their identity would not be disclosed. In this case, some persons spent nearly a week with the question paper setters.

The questions in the question papers brought in the sealed covers were fed into the computer in the third week of January for preparing a master question bank. The committee found that several hard and soft copies containing the questions and key answers for the medical and dental examinations were available before the conduct of the examination. The committee said the entire examination process in the RGUHS had become brazen.

The committee said it is with "the connivance of the higher authorities, the Registrar, in-charge deputy registrar in charge of the PGCET and other officials joined hands and hatched a conspiracy to commit the examination malpractice".

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