KARACHI: A judicial magistrate on Friday remanded three officials of the Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) in the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in the MDCAT paper leak.

The investigating officer brought three suspects — DUHS controller examination Fuad Sheikh, deputy controller examination Manthar Ali and assistant admin officer Muhammad Farooq Khan — before the judicial magistrate (Malir) over allegations of exploiting the examination process for substantial monetary gains and undermining fairness and credibility of the medical entry test.

The IO requested the court that she required their physical custody for 14 days for further interrogation and to apprehend the remaining individuals nominated in the FIR.

After hearing the IO, the court remanded them in FIA custody for three days and directed IO to submit a progress report at the next hearing.

It is pertinent to mention that the DUHS officials may be produced before the court on Monday after completing their initial remand, along with three other suspects who are already remanded in the FIA custody.

According to the contents of the FIR, the FIA’s Cyber Crime Reporting Centre (CCRC), Karachi, had registered an FIR against the controller of examination of the DUHS and the deputy controller of DUHS and 13 other nominated suspects under relevant sections of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016 (Peca) and the Pakistan Penal Code on Dec 10.

The FIA initiated an inquiry on Oct 18, 2024, over the complaint regarding leaking of MDCAT-2024 entrance examination paper conducted on Sept 22, that “damaged the career of meritorious students of Sindh”.

Upon inquiries, it transpired that the said two DUHS officials and several others were involved in leaking the paper.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2024