"The examination results have been withheld for an indefinite period. This is the status as of now. In normal circumstances, the results would have been declared the following day," PGIMER's spokesperson Manju Wadwalkar said here today.
Asked if there was a lapse on the institute's part and that it failed to detect that the accused girls, who are from Andhra Pradesh, were not meeting the eligibility criteria of having a valid MBBS degree for appearing in the examination, she said, "when candidates apply for these exams, we only take photocopies of certificates from them. The original documents are only verified once the candidates have cleared the examination".
After the arrest of seven girls along with seven accomplices from here, CBI investigations revealed that the accused girls did not hold MBBS degrees and some were merely matriculates or Class XII pass and the agency is scrutinising the records submitted by the candidates.
According to CBI sources, the 14 people arrested from Chandigarh, allegedly involved in answering questions of the post-doctoral exams at the prestigious PGI, Chandigarh, used to charge Rs 50 lakh per candidate.
CBI had arrested 14 people from Chandigarh and detained three in Patna and one in Hyderabad after its sleuths swooped down on examination centres and arrested seven girls who were writing the exams with the help of blue-tooth hearing devices embedded in their ears.