NEW DELHI: An investigation by ED, assisted by the ministry of external affairs (MEA) and its foreign missions and embassies, has unearthed a massive NRI admission racket, in which private medical colleges were found offering admissions on about 18,000 reserved MBBS UG and PG seats under the quota by using forged documents of non-resident Indians.India’s foreign missions have verified that the NRI certificates, seized by Enforcement Directorate (ED) from several private medical colleges and used to offer admissions, were fake, and counterfeit stamps of notaries in the US were provided against these admissions.ED had conducted searches at various medical colleges in West Bengal and Odisha over the last few months, through which it seized crucial evidence. The agency then sent the seized NRI certificates to Indian embassies and missions for verification. Most of them were found to be forged or fake. The probe further revealed these medical colleges were paying agents to have fake NRI documents prepared.The agents also prepared fake family trees of NRIs, wherein these unrelated NRIs were shown as relatives of students to help secure admissions under the NRI quota. In some cases, the agents and medical colleges used documents of one NRI for admissions of multiple candidates, who were unrelated to the NRI sponsor and to each other. The promoters of these medical colleges were found to be behind the illegal admission racket, with their agents spread across the country bringing “clients” and helping them generate huge “proceeds of crime”.The Centre has since revised its NRI admission policy, with the DG of health services issuing fresh guidelines wherein each NRI certificate has to be authenticated by embassies and missions before admission is granted on its basis. This happened after coordinated action involving multiple Union ministries.The MEA too has issued fresh guidelines to its embassies and missions abroad, for strict due diligence in issuance of NRI certificates, outlining the eligibility criteria and clearly delineating ‘first degree’ and ‘second degree’ relatives in respect of whom NRIs can get certificates for admissions under the quota in India.The involvement of some NRIs has also come to light. They allowed their names to be used after receiving bribes from the agents of the medical colleges. “The agents approached and obtained credentials of unrelated NRIs by paying money to them,” the investigation found.The existing rules specify that the fees of the NRI student must be paid by the NRI sponsor. However, the investigation found that in a majority of the cases fees were paid by the family of the student and not the NRI sponsor, thereby defeating the very purpose of the policy, which is to earn foreign exchange, sources said.Probe revealed many NRI sponsors were not present in India on the dates affidavits were notarised and signed, a senior official said.
