Fresh impersonation case rocks PGI

The CBI is yet to identify the impersonator who sat in place of Dr Patel at the PGI entrance test held in 2009. This person too is part of the wide network of impersonators — mostly brilliant MD students or doctors — who were allegedly being paid by Shalin to appear for entrance tests of various premier medical colleges and research institutes,said Aggarwal.

Other than PGI,the CBI is questioning Shalin about his links to medical colleges in Karnataka. Shalin,who had a branch of his coaching centre in Bangalore,is said to be in touch with a set of assistant professors of a medical college who were allegedly partnering with him to “sell” seats. CBI sources said that Shalin had also allegedly rigged the pre-medical entrance test conducted by the MP state government in which several hundred seats were reportedly “sold” by him.

Shalin also allegedly arranged for seats in private medical colleges in Punjab and Haryana,as well as a medical college in Jammu and Kashmir. CBI sources said that they had identified these colleges and were now trying to locate Shalin’s link men in these colleges. Shalin used to claim to aspirants that he could plant impersonators even in the all-India CBSE entrance test for admission to MBBS courses in various medical colleges,including the AIIMS. The CBI said it was looking into this possibility too since many of the impersonators allegedly being used by Shalin were from Delhi.

The CBI has arrested four doctors in the case,including alleged impersonator Dr Pradeep Chaudhry who was nabbed early this year from Lady Hardinge Medical College,New Delhi. He had allegedly appeared in the PGI’s MD entrance test in place of Dr Sujoy Sonawane. Dr Sonawane was pursuing his MD in paediatrics in PGI when he was arrested by the CBI in September.