As a team of the Medical Council of India (MCI) visited the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital (NBMCH) to inspect the infrastructure for the MBBS course, and as some exams for MBBS students are ongoing there, some photocopies of notes and textbooks were found in the men’s toilet near the examination hall.

The find has led to suspicions that the copies may have been kept there by the students for adopting unfair means during the Third Prof Examination (Part 11) that is underway. Professor of the department of general medicine of Smt NHL Municipal Medical College, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, Dr Jayesh Dutt, and professor and head of the department obstetrics and gynecology, GMERS Medical College, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, Bipin M Nayak made the one-day inspection to review the process of conducting the MBBS examination, evaluate the performance in the examinations in the past three years, timing of the examinations, faculty strength, and whether MCI guidelines are being followed during examinations.

NBMCH officials said the purpose of the visit was to look into the infrastructure for the 150 MBBS seats for the academic session 2018-2019. The MCI slashed 50 of the 150 MBBS seats at the NBMCH in the last academic session (2017-18), citing inadequate infrastructure.

Meanwhile, 102 aspiring doctors appeared in the examinations for medicine and gynaecology on Monday. However, surprisingly, bunches of photocopies and pages of textbooks were found stashed in the men’s toilet on Monday.

NBMCH sources, however, said the matter did not come to the notice of the MCI team, which, however, raised questions on the lack of CCTV cameras in the examination halls. NBMCH authorities, meanwhile, seemed to downplay the find in the toilet. “We keep a strong vigil of the exam halls.

Someone may have kept those things in the toilets after failing to carry them to the examination hall,” said assistant dean of the students’ affairs of the NBMCH, Dr Sandip Sengupta. Dr Sengupta said CCTV cameras would be installed in the halls soon and that they were also planning to set up a mobile jammer.