The Sion police have registered a First Information Report (FIR) against a father and daughter who allegedly obtained a medical education through a falsified caste certificate.
According to the information received from Sion police, Dr. Jagdish Rathod (51), the complainant, filed a complaint, stating that in 2022, he took the National Eligibility Test for Postgraduate (NET PG) examination and secured a rank of 25498.
Upon inspecting the list of rankings for the PG NET exam for Vimukta Jati and Nomadic Tribes, Rathod noticed some names that did not belong to that caste.
Inquiry into caste status
To investigate further, Rathod reached out to Dr. Anil Salunke, an individual working with Vimukta Jati and Nomadic Tribes. Rathod inquired about Dr. Antara Raghuvanshi's caste status. Salunke confidently affirmed that Antara did not belong to that caste.
In light of this information, Rathod initiated an inquiry through the Right to Information (RTI) process within the relevant department. However, Rathod encountered difficulty in obtaining accurate information through this channel. Frustrated with the lack of progress, he wrote a letter to the Babasaheb Research Training Center (BARTI) in Pune.
Involvement of caste certificate committee
Upon receiving Rathod's letter, BARTI forwarded it to the Caste Certificate Committee in Nashik district. The committee, in turn, sent the letter to SMBT Medical College in Igatpuri, where Antara had enrolled, and requested the caste certificate of Dr. Antara Anil Raghuvanshi. After acquiring the caste certificate, the committee cross-referenced it with the records of the Caste Certificate Committee in Nashik and found no entry matching the certificate provided by Raghuvanshi.
With the absence of a valid caste certificate for Antara Anil Raghuvanshi, Dr. Rathod filed a complaint with the Sion Police Station.
Subsequently, based on Rathod's complaint, the Sion police have initiated an investigation by filing an FIR against Dr. Antara Raghuvanshi and her father, Dr. Anil Raghuvanshi, under sections 34, 420, 465, 466, 468, and 471 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Rathod's complaint to the police states that Antara pursued her MBBS degree at Lokmanya Tilak Medical College, Sion, from 2016 to 2021, initially gaining admission on the basis of her caste certificate.
In 2023, relying on her caste certificate, Antara enrolled in the dermatology department for postgraduate studies at SMBT Medical College in Igatpuri. However, Rathod informed the police that Antara subsequently withdrew her admission.
