The admission process for medical and dental colleges in Uttarakhand through NEET UG 2026 has come under intense regulatory scrutiny. State authorities have ordered an extensive verification drive targeting 778 candidates who secured MBBS and BDS seats under various state quota reservation benefits. The scrutiny encompasses documents submitted by candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, Economically Weaker Sections, and Dependents of Freedom Fighters. This extensive inquiry follows allegations and preliminary findings of fraudulent certificates being submitted during the counselling sessions to claim reserved seats.
District Administrations Tasked With Document Verification
Following strict orders from Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and Health Minister Subodh Uniyal, the original verification dossiers of all 778 candidates have been dispatched to their respective district administrative offices. Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Medical Education University published a consolidated list of 1,112 candidates who either secured provisional admission or opted for the 'float' option during the first and second rounds of state counselling. The university controller of examinations, Prof. Vijay Juyal, confirmed that 778 students on this list obtained their seats by claiming reserved status under the state quota.
District-level administrative teams are now meticulously examining the legitimacy of domicile, caste, and special reservation certificates submitted by each applicant. Officials are checking the issuance records with local issuing authorities to determine if the documentation conforms fully to admission regulations and eligibility guidelines. Rather than restricting the enquiry to a single category, the state government decided to broaden the investigation across all reserved classifications to eliminate systemic irregularities.
Origin Of The Probe And Suspect Candidate Dossier
The controversy gained significant momentum when social activist Pradeep Bahuguna presented a dossier containing approximately 370 suspected candidate profiles to Health and Medical Education Minister Subodh Uniyal. The submission called for an urgent probe into the authenticity of domicile certificates and reservation paperwork submitted by those applicants. Bahuguna pointed out noticeable discrepancies in the admission records, arguing that an official audit was imperative to uphold integrity in competitive medical seat allocations.
While Bahuguna did not claim that every certificate on the list was fraudulent, he emphasized that several cases showed suspicious parameters requiring strict verification. Consequently, the state health ministry directed district collectors to examine the paperwork. The initial trigger for the probe arose from the Freedom Fighter Dependent category, where certain certificates were indeed found to be forged, resulting in the cancellation of those fraudulent admissions. This discovery prompted the government to expand the ambit of scrutiny across all reservation quotas.
SIT Probes Forgery Network And Seizes College Records
As the use of fabricated certificates under the Freedom Fighter Dependent quota surfaced, a Special Investigation Team of the Dehradun police was assigned to uncover the underlying network. Investigators are tracking the origin of the fake certificates, the individuals responsible for procuring them, and the administrative channels used to introduce them into the counselling mechanism.
Under the leadership of Superintendent of Police Jaya Baloni, the SIT travelled from Dehradun to Haridwar Medical College as part of the operational inquiry. The investigation team impounded and sealed all educational and reservation credentials of a female student admitted via the state merit list. SIT sleuths also questioned college administrative staff regarding admission-stage checks and scrutinised the physical verification logs maintained by the institution. With fraudulent admissions already verified in select freedom fighter quota cases, the SIT continues its investigation to initiate criminal proceedings against all parties involved in the scam.
