Jaipur: In its ongoing investigation into the fake FMGE certificate scam, the Rajasthan Police’s Special Operations Group (SOG) has arrested 18 people, including a former registrar of the Rajasthan Medical Council (RMC), for allegedly helping unqualified candidates with registrations and internships with forged documents.Among those arrested are former RMC registrar and former nodal officer. They were taken into custody along with 15 candidates who had obtained MBBS degrees from abroad but failed to clear the mandatory Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE), which is required to practise in India, and thereby obtained fake certificates to practise here. Additional Director General (SOG) Vishal Bansal alleged that the former RMC registrar is the key accused in the case. The accused used fake FMGE certificates to obtain provisional registrations from the council and secured internships in hospitals, bypassing mandatory verification checks.Preliminary findings suggest that each candidate paid between Rs 20 lakh and Rs 25 lakh to be part of the racket. Out of this, around Rs 11 lakh per candidate was allegedly paid to RMC officials and staff, while the rest was shared among middlemen and agents.Also read- 2 arrested in Fake FMGE certificate scam for medical council internships, 73 more under scannerThe arrests were made after multiple teams of SOG by teams led by DIG Paris Deshmukh and SP Kundan Kanwariya carried out operations at 22 locations across nine districts of the state, including Jaipur, on Wednesday.Speaking to TOI, Bansal said, “The certificates were not authenticated before issuing registrations. This allowed unqualified individuals to enter the system.”The racket first triggered official alarm in Oct 2024, when the medical and health department constituted a five-member inquiry committee following allegations of fake registrations. Based on its interim findings, the doctor was suspended after procedural lapses and irregularities were flagged in the issuance of licences.DIG Paris Deshmukh said, “The arrests follow an earlier breakthrough in Dec last year, when SOG exposed the racket by nabbing three fake doctors who used forged FMGE documents to secure internships.”Medical Dialogues had reported that Rajasthan’s Special Operations Group (SOG) uncovered a major medical qualification scam, exposing how unqualified individuals attempted to infiltrate the state’s healthcare system using forged documents. Three foreign medical graduates, who repeatedly failed the mandatory FMGE screening test, were found to have fraudulently secured internships at government medical colleges.According to SOG officials, the racket came to light after investigators discovered that one of the accused had allegedly procured a fake FMGE pass certificate and obtained National Medical Commission (NMC) approval for internship. Further probe revealed that two more individuals had used similar forged documents to secure postings in government hospitals across Rajasthan.The agency has since then uncovered what they describe as an organised syndicate that facilitated illegal registrations and internships through forged FMGE documents, with alleged collusion from within the council. A case was registered after evidence pointed to systemic manipulation of the registration process.In one instance, an accused doctor was found working in a private hospital in Udaipur using a forged certificate. So far, investigators have identified more than 90 such individuals who may have entered the healthcare sector through fake documents.With the recent arrests, police are widening their investigation to identify more people linked with the racket. Also read- FMGE fraud busted in Rajasthan: 3 fake doctors arrested for using forged certificates for govt internships