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New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has unearthed a large-scale admission racket in private medical colleges of West Bengal and Odisha, where ineligible students gained entry into MBBS and postgraduate courses through the NRI quota using forged certificates and fake documents.
Searches at multiple premises led to the recovery of counterfeit US notary stamps, fabricated family trees showing unrelated foreigners as relatives of candidates, and NRI certificates later confirmed as fake by Indian embassies and missions abroad.
According to ED officials, medical colleges in collusion with admission agents paid intermediaries to prepare forged papers. In many cases, the same NRI’s credentials were reused for multiple candidates, while fees were paid by families of students in India, defeating the quota’s intended purpose of bringing foreign exchange. Affidavits allegedly signed by NRI sponsors who were not even present in India at the time of notarisation further exposed the scale of forgery.
Following the revelations, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) have tightened admission norms from the 2025-26 academic session. NRI certificates will now be verified through MEA and Indian High Commissions, and admissions based on fake papers will be cancelled. Colleges and candidates found complicit will face punitive action.
With nearly 15 per cent of India’s 1.2 lakh MBBS seats reserved under the NRI quota, officials said the crackdown will usher in greater transparency. Unfilled NRI quota seats will revert to the management quota, opening opportunities for higher-ranked students. ED added that the racket could have wider implications, since similar NRI quota seats exist in law, MBA and other professional courses.
