MUMBAI: The state tribal development department has filed a first information report (FIR) against nine medial students for allegedly forging documents to get admission under reserved category in a college in Dhule district and subsequently availing scholarship benefits. The FIR, which was filed on Tuesdayat Chalisgaon Road police station, also accuses the nine students of cheating the state government.Suspecting that Scheduled Tribe (ST) caste certificates submitted by 30 medical students from Annasaheb Chudaman Patil Memorial Medical College at Morone were forged, Rajaram Halape, the project officer of an integrated tribal development project, wrote to the ST caste certificate scrutiny committee for Nandurbar division asking it to confirm if the certificates were genuine.After receiving a reply from the committee that it had not issued verified ST caste certificates to nine of the 30 students in August, Halape dashed a letter to the college asking it to recover the money from the errant students.on September 23 had reported about the students getting into the college by submitting fake caste certificates. “Now that an FIR has been filed, the police will investigate the matter,” Halape toldOn taking further precautionary measures, Halape said the department will now verify caste certificates from the scrutiny committee before sanctioning scholarships and finalizing admissions.In March, the director of medical education and research had fined a few students who got admission in Seth G S Medical College at Parel, Lokmanya Tilak Municipal Medical College at Sion and Grant Government Medical College in Byculla by submitting fake certificates. The students were fined Rs 10 lakh each for obtaining MBBS degree and Rs 20 lakh each for obtaining postgraduate degree. The director also wrote to the medical council to de-recognize their degrees and restrict them from getting admission elsewhere. Last year, the tribal development department had drawn flak as of the 119 certificates produced, 108 were declared invalid by the caste verification committee.

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