Rajasthan HC Refuses Bail to 17 MBBS Graduates Who Used Fake FMGE Clearance Certificates for Hospital Internships

Justice Ravi Chirania dismissed bail applications of 17 foreign medical graduates arrested for using fraudulent FMGE clearance certificates to begin internships in Rajasthan hospitals.

The High Court of Judicature for Rajasthan, Bench at Jaipur, on 30 June 2026 dismissed bail applications filed by seventeen accused persons, all foreign medical graduates, who were arrested in connection with a case involving fake Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE) clearance certificates. Justice Ravi Chirania (V.J.), sitting singly, heard the batch of connected applications and found that the petitioners' admitted use of certificates that did not belong to them was a serious act that could not be treated lightly, even accounting for their status as students. The ruling comes against the backdrop of an ongoing investigation by the Special Operations Group (SOG), Rajasthan, in which 86 persons have already been arrested and more than 78 remain under investigation.

The Fraud and the FIR

The petitioners — spread across multiple bail applications numbered S.B. Criminal Miscellaneous Bail Application No. 3813/2026 and connected matters — obtained MBBS degrees from Kazakhstan, Georgia, and other countries. Under the applicable framework described in the proceedings, foreign medical graduates are required to clear the FMGE before they can undertake a mandatory internship, and only after completing that internship do they become eligible for registration with the Rajasthan Medical Council to practise as doctors.

The SOG first registered FIR No. 34/2025 on 16 July 2025 against three persons. A charge-sheet in that case was filed on 25 February 2026. The impugned FIR No. 8/2026, dated 4 February 2026, was registered at the Special Police Station SOG, District ATS & SOG. This second FIR named 86 persons and was filed for offences punishable under Sections 420, 467, 468, 471, and 120B of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, and Section 66D of the Information Technology Act, 2000. The petitioners were arrested under this second FIR and filed their bail applications under Section 483 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023.

According to the prosecution, a gang obtained the FMGE clearance certificates of successful candidates and substituted those certificates with the personal details of the petitioners. Armed with these doctored certificates, almost all of the petitioners submitted internship applications and actually commenced internships at various government and private hospitals in Rajasthan. It was only after the matter was reported and investigated that many of them destroyed the certificates and withdrew from their respective hospital internships.

What the Petitioners Argued

Counsel for the petitioners, arguing their cases independently despite common facts, did not dispute that the petitioners had genuinely obtained their MBBS degrees from abroad. The central submission was that the degrees themselves were valid and not under challenge. Counsel acknowledged that some petitioners had appeared for the FMGE on multiple attempts but had been unable to clear it.

On the fake certificates, counsel submitted that when some petitioners became aware of the fraudulent nature of the certificates, they chose not to use them or voluntarily withdrew from their internships. The defence placed weight on the petitioners' standing as students at the time, arguing they had not deployed the fake credentials to actually practise as registered doctors or to derive professional benefit in any completed sense. Counsel also pointed to the absence of any criminal antecedents.

Two counsel — Mr. Hemant Nahta and Mr. Sahaj Veer Baweja — raised a distinct statutory argument: that the charge-sheet had not been filed within the prescribed time, which they argued entitled the petitioners to bail by default. This contention was directly addressed and rejected by the prosecution.

The State's Opposition

Mr. Rajesh Chaudhary, Government Advocate-cum-Additional Advocate General, appearing with Mr. Vijay Yadav, AGA, and Mr. Vinod Sharma, AAAG, opposed all the bail applications. The Investigating Officer, Mr. Jitendra Nawariya, Deputy Superintendent of Police, SOG, Jaipur, was present in court and assisted in addressing factual submissions.

The prosecution's case was that the petitioners were not passive victims of a fraud. Despite failing the FMGE on multiple attempts, they actively sought out a gang that supplied fake clearance certificates. The gang used the actual certificates of successful candidates, overlaid the petitioners' details, and handed the doctored documents over. The petitioners then submitted these certificates with their internship applications and commenced working in hospitals.

On the charge-sheet timing argument raised by defence counsel, the prosecution clarified that the charge-sheet was filed on 1 May 2026 and a supplementary charge-sheet was filed on 22 June 2026, both well within time. The investigation was described as continuing, with the possibility of further arrests across Rajasthan.

The prosecution pressed the court to consider the public health dimension: persons who had fabricated their eligibility to practise medicine were on the verge of treating patients in hospitals. The potential for endangering the lives of ordinary people was central to the argument against bail.

How the Court Reasoned

Justice Chirania identified a set of undisputed facts that effectively framed the decision. The petitioners had MBBS degrees — that was not in issue. None of them had cleared the FMGE. They all used certificates that, as confirmed by the SOG's verification, did not belong to them. After the investigation began, they either destroyed the certificates or pulled out of their internships. None of them had succeeded in getting registered with the Rajasthan Medical Council, and none had worked as a registered professional doctor.

The court did not ignore these mitigating circumstances. However, Justice Chirania held that despite holding genuine professional degrees, the petitioners' admitted act of using fake FMGE clearance certificates was a serious act that “cannot be taken lightly in the given facts and circumstances.”

The court also took into account that the investigation was ongoing and more persons were likely to be arrested. The scale of the scheme — 86 arrested, more than 78 still under investigation — and the stage of proceedings weighed against enlarging the petitioners at this stage.

On the charge-sheet timing argument, the court accepted the prosecution's position that the charge-sheet had been filed on 1 May 2026, within the prescribed period, and that a supplementary charge-sheet followed on 22 June 2026. The statutory bail-by-default argument therefore did not survive.

Outcome

Justice Ravi Chirania dismissed all seventeen bail applications. The order was pronounced on 30 June 2026, with arguments having concluded and the order reserved on 25 June 2026. The petitioners — Shubham Gurjar, Yash Purohit, Vinay Chauhan, Dayaram Gurjar, Avinash Saini, Sarwan Lamror, Prateek Chaudhary, Dinesh Kumar, Ravi Kumar Gurjar, Vikas Yadav, Narendra Singh, Manish Chandela, Vicky Samota, Deepesh Yadav, Ishwar Yadav, and Karan Singh Gurjar, among others — remain confined in Central Jail, Jaipur. The SOG investigation into the fake FMGE certificate network continues.