Hyderabad: The Anti-Corruption Bureau on Friday got its first breakthrough in the misuse of sports quota in medical admissions scam.
The ACB arrested G. Venkataramana, deputy director, TS Sports Authority, for accepting a bribe of Rs 1 lakh from hockey player Bharathchandra Reddy, in return for a copy of the allotment of priorities for admission into medical college under the sports quota.
The ACB carried out searches at the residences of five SATS (Sports Authority Telangana State) employees on Wednesday, before registering a case of criminal misconduct against Venkatramana under section 7,13 (1), (d) and Sec. 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Searches were carried out at the residences of sports officials K. Manohar, in-charge administration, deputy director G.A. Shobha, G. Chandra Reddy, administration, and Vimalakar Rao, Administrator — SATS, to collect evidence. This breakthrough is deemed to be just the tip of the iceberg, as 162 cases are yet to be verified.
The employees alleged to be involved in the scam did not issue certificates of participation in sports events but misused their positions to authenticate documents submitted by the sportspersons (students) who applied for admission under the sports quota in medical colleges during the 2017-18 academic year.
Across government and private colleges in TS, there were 3,700 MBBS seats in 2017-18 and 12 seats were allocated under sports quota. Applicants who participate in international and national level sports events and who have been issued a certificate of participation are eligible to apply to medical colleges under the sports quota, and when they do, their certificates have to be verified by the Centre or TS Sports Authority.
There is a priority list, so, for instance, if a candidate has participated in the Olympics and has secured a medal, he/she will be ranked 1, sans a medal, rank 2. For participating in international level sports, rank 10, for national level, 27.
