Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari said today that the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) raids on private medical colleges will expose many health officials in the state.
The ED is investigating allegations of fake documents being submitted under the NRI quota for admission to medical colleges. Raids are being conducted across the state as part of the probe. Suvendu Adhikari remarked that this investigation should have started earlier.
In his words, “ED has raided all medical colleges in West Bengal. This is not new. A corruption case regarding quotas in Kolkata Medical College surfaced some time ago. All medical colleges are linked to this. The West Bengal health department is also involved. Since 2018, fraudulent admissions have been conducted under the NRI quota without obtaining a no objection certificate (NOC) from the ministry of external affairs. An FIR was filed against this, and the matter even reached the Calcutta High Court.”
He further added, “ED is conducting raids today. This should have happened earlier. Not just medical colleges, but even the director of medical education and others will face trouble, I can assure you. Victims of this issue have approached me as well. I am sharing what I know.” Since this morning, the central investigative agency has been conducting searches in multiple locations across the state. Reports suggest that private medical colleges are under ED’s radar. For instance, a house in the BC block of Salt Lake is being raided. It is learned that the raid is targeting the home of a relative of someone associated with a private medical college in Jadavpur.
According to ED sources, a significant number of fake documents were found among those submitted for admissions under the NRI quota. Following this discovery and preliminary investigations, the ED has initiated a fresh ECIR (enforcement case information report).