DUHS controller of examination, five others get bail in MDCAT paper leak case

A Malir court has granted post-arrest bail to six suspects, including two senior officials of the Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS), in the Medical and Dental Colleges Admission Test (MDCAT) paper leak case.

DUHS Controller of Examination Fuad Sheikh and Deputy Controller of Rxamination Manthar Ali, along with four others – Muhammad Farooque Khan, Tariq Aziz Samo, Shan Asfandyar and Shiraz Bilal — were arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for their alleged involvement in leaking the MDCAT question paper through various social media sites against monetary gains.

They moved applications before Judicial Magistrate (Malir) Piyar Ali Khoso seeking their release on bail. After hearing the defence and prosecution sides, the magistrate granted them bail against a surety of Rs100,000 each.

Defence counsel Pir Asadullah Shah Rashdi contended that the applicants were innocent and had falsely been booked in the present case without any substantial evidence. He said the sections related to the PECA were bailabale in nature while the rest of the sections invoked againt his clients also did not fall under the prohibitory clause of the Section 497 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). He therefore requested the magistrate to grant bail to the suspects.

On the other hand, the prosecutor vehemently opposed the bail pleas, arguing that the case was at a premature stage as a charge-sheet had not been submitted yet. On December 18, the magistrate had returned the bail applications citing lack of jurisdiction. He observed that the alleged offence fell within the ambit of the anti-corruption law as some of the suspects were public servants and that the Section 5 (d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act clarified that misconduct of a public servant was schedule offence of the Act.

However, a sessions judge set aside the magistrate's impugned order and directed the investigation officer to submit the FIR and relevant record to the magistrate, who shall decide bail applications as per the law.

"It is yet to be determined by the investigating officer as to whether the provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947 will also be applied in the case or not. Therefore, the observations of the learned 1st Judicial Magistrate Malir are premature regarding the jurisdiction in this case," the judge noted. "Moreover, the investigation agency may also file separate challan before the Anti Corruption Court if it comes to conclusion that the provision of Act 1947 is applied to the case of accused for reasons that the 1st Judicial Magistrate being designated court is not competent to try such offences [that] fall within the Act 1947."

Two senior DUHS officials and over a dozen other individuals have been booked by the FIA’s Cyber Crime Reporting Circle Karachi for allegedly committing the offences punishable under relevant sections of Peca and the PPC.

According to the FIA, on October 18, 2024, an inquiry was launched on a complaint about the MDCAT entry examination paper leak on September 22. Upon inquiry, the FIA said, DUHS officials and several others were found involved in leaking the paper. The suspects sold information using social media as a tool and were responsible for breaching confidentiality during the preparation phase of the exam, it added.