Patna: A general store has come up at the site of ‘Council of Patent Medicine’ in Bihar’s Arrah district which granted affiliation to institutions for running medical courses across the country.
It has been declared a fake university after the matter came to light and is currently facing CBI probe as ordered by the Patna High Court.
Council of Patent Medicine provided affiliations to colleges for medical courses in allopathy, ayurveda and homeopathy, and around 800 people graduated from these institutions and are currently practicing in various parts of the country.
The matter came into light when Umesh Chand and few others from Faridabad district of Haryana approached the court after their licenses were cancelled by the state government.
The Bihar government submitted before the Patna High Court on Wednesday that a detailed report by a high level committee found that the Council of Patent Medicine was illegally granting affiliations. While hearing the case, Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah directed the CBI to probe how it granted affiliation to medical colleges in the state’s Muzaffarpur district, Faridabad in Haryana, Bengaluru in Karnataka and Calcutta in West Bengal.
News18 visited the address of the institute and found a general store named ‘Ridhi Sidhi Kirana’ written on the main gate of the building. Apart from that, the structure was too small to be called a university.
Inside the campus, a blank notice board was visible and ‘Council Of Patent Medicine’ was printed on the upper wall of the building. The shopkeeper said that there was no activity in the campus for the last ten years and he never noticed any student turning up.
After enquiry, News18 managed to get the contact number of its owner, Dr G P Nirbhay. However, when contacted, his son Chetan picked up the phone. He was aware of the High Court order but said that the university was closed in 2004.
He was not comfortable when asked from which organization his institute was affiliated, saying, “We had affiliation to a Sri Lankan Open University.”
When asked to specifically tell the name of the university, he said, “I am not aware of the details as my father can tell you about this.”
However, he conceded that Council of Patent Medicine granted affiliations to other colleges for running medical courses and some graduates had approached the court against them when their licenses were cancelled.
“We started courses in 1990 and a case was filed against us in an Arrah court in 1996 but we won in 2004. The court ruled that the university was legal. However, we shut down the university in the same year for financial reasons. Few old students went to the High Court against us. But we will cooperate with judiciary and fight our cases,” he said.
News18 found that JP Institute of Patent Medical & Hospital (JPIP) in Muzaffarpur, claiming affiliation from Council of Patent Medicine, was still admitting students. One can download and apply for various graduate level medical courses by logging on its website - http://jpmedical.org/index.html.
Talking to News18, Dr KB Srivastav, director of JPIP Medical Science & Hospital, firmly denied any wrongdoing and cited the 2004 order which restored the legal status of its affiliating university.
However, he was clueless when told that Council of Patent Medicine no longer existed and that a Kiraana Shop was there in place of any university. When asked about the Patna High Court order of a CBI probe, he said, “We will furnish the documents in the court.”
News18 found that the affiliated college continued to flourish even after a high-level committee set up by the state government in February 2016 clearly stated that these medical colleges were running in contravention of existing law, rules and procedure and were violating laws regulating medical education and practice in the country.
The two-member enquiry committee had said that the fake institution was not only committing fraud with the government of India but also doing immense harm to the society by issuing "illegal degrees" without any actual study or proper training.
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