Mumbai: The Maharashtra Nodal Cyber Police, probing an alleged racket in which foreign medical graduates obtained Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC) registration without clearing the mandatory Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE), have arrested a 36-year-old tout from Nashik.
Police said Patil charged Rs 20 lakh to Rs 25 lakh per candidate. The arrest follows the arrest of two MBBS graduates, Varun Akhade (28) and Sanket Unhale (26), both from Buldhana district, last week. Police have named 19 other persons as wanted accused. Police suspect that at least 16 foreign medical graduates who had not cleared the FMGE may have benefited from the racket.
A forensic examination of their mobile phones also revealed communication with Patil.
Patil allegedly told investigators that his associates, Dharmendra from Bhopal and Shivam Singh from Delhi, helped procure the forged registration certificates. Police said Patil allegedly prepared fake FMGE scorecards, provisional medical registration certificates, internship completion certificates and other documents, which were uploaded on the MMC portal. Police said he collected Aadhaar and PAN cards, voter identity cards, educational certificates, passports, degree apostille documents, internship certificates, caste and domicile certificates and other records from candidates. Investigating officer Dilip Jadhav said that the arrested duo had disclosed that Patil approached them to arrange MMC registration in return for money.
The accused, identified as Rahul Gopal Patil, allegedly lured foreign medical graduates who had failed or not cleared the FMGE by promising to secure their medical registration through forged documents. Two police teams were subsequently sent to Bhopal and Delhi to trace them, but they could not be located. During their interrogation, the duo allegedly disclosed Patil’s involvement. Patil allegedly retained a commission and paid the remaining amount to his associates.