86 Arrests, One Courtroom: Why Choosing the Right MBBS College Abroad Decides Everything
Somewhere in Jaipur this month, a mother is not sleeping. Five years ago she waved her son off at the airport, proud, certain, a future doctor. This month his name sits inside a police FIR, and a High Court has just refused him bail.
He did not rob anyone. He did not hurt a patient. His crime, in the end, was a piece of paper — a fake exam certificate he used because the real one was out of reach. And he is not alone. Eighty-six people have been arrested in the same case. More than seventy others are still being investigated.
This is a true story, reported on 13 July 2026. It is also a warning. Because the road that ended in that courtroom did not begin with a forged certificate. It began years earlier, with one quiet decision made at a kitchen table: which college.
The short version
- The Rajasthan High Court refused bail to a group of foreign medical graduates accused of using fake FMGE pass certificates to get their internships. Their foreign MBBS degrees were genuine — but none had cleared the exam India requires.
- The FMGE is hard and getting harder: in recent sessions fewer than one in four candidates have cleared it. A weak foundation abroad often means a wall back home.
- The fraud is the last domino. The first domino is the wrong college — and sending a student who isn’t ready to study seriously.
- The honest path has two parts: pick a college built to teach you properly, and go only if you’re ready to work for it. Verify before you pay.
What actually happened in Rajasthan
According to the court record, a group of students had completed genuine MBBS degrees abroad — in countries such as Kazakhstan and Georgia. Their degrees were never in dispute. But a foreign degree alone does not let you practise in India. You must also clear the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE) — the screening test conducted by the National Board of Examinations — then finish an internship and register with a state medical council.
Several of them sat the FMGE. They could not clear it. And here the story turns. Investigators say a racket sold them forged FMGE pass certificates, created by copying the details of candidates who had actually passed. With those fake certificates, the graduates secured internships in government and private hospitals.
Then the investigation caught up. The Special Operations Group registered a case. Some destroyed the certificates; some quietly walked away from their internships. It did not matter. Hearing their bail plea, the judge was blunt: using fake certificates was a serious act that “cannot be taken lightly,” even from students. Bail: denied.
Their degrees were real. Their shortcut was not. And a real degree plus a fake certificate still equals a ruined career.
Why good kids end up in bad places
It is easy to read that story and judge. Don’t. Because most of these students didn’t set out to cheat. They set out, at seventeen or eighteen, to become doctors — and somewhere along the way the ground gave out beneath them.
Picture it honestly. A teenager lands in a new country. The lectures, it turns out, are not really in English — the brochure said one thing, the classroom says another. The clinical training is thin. Nobody is checking whether you studied today. You are young, far from home, and free for the first time in your life. So you live a little. You enjoy it. Who wouldn’t, at that age?
I don’t blame the student for that. I blame the setup. A sixteen-year-old cannot audit a medical college’s compliance. That is the parent’s job, and the counsellor’s job — and too often, both are done by someone who is paid the day the student boards the flight, not the day the student becomes a doctor.
A college is not a shop that sells you a degree. It is a gym. If it has no equipment and no coach, you walk out as weak as you walked in.
The FMGE wall — and the shortcut that ruins lives
Five years later, the bill comes due. The student returns to India and meets the FMGE — and it is a wall. In recent sessions, fewer than one in four candidates have cleared it — and in the toughest recent session, roughly one in eight. Even in a good session, most people fail.
Now put yourself in their shoes. Years gone. Lakhs spent. Parents waiting. A degree in hand that is useless without this one exam — and a foundation too weak to clear it. That is the exact moment a racket whispers, “There’s an easier way.” The forged certificate isn’t the start of a bad character. It’s the end of a bad decision made years earlier.
The road to that courtroom
The road we want for your child
How do you go about choosing the right MBBS college abroad?
The good news: the wall is avoidable. Not by finding a shortcut at the end, but by making the right choice at the start. Before you pay a single rupee, check these — and ask for documents, not promises.
| What to check | Why it decides your child’s future |
|---|---|
| Medium of instruction | Is teaching, and clinical work, genuinely 100% in English? Ask for the documented Medium-of-Instruction certificate — the NMC’s FMGL 2021 rules require it. |
| Course duration | NMC requires a minimum of 54 months of medical education at one institution. Anything shorter risks your degree being rejected. |
| Separate internship | A 12-month internship is required after the course, at the same institution — not merged into the final year. |
| Real clinical exposure | Will the student actually examine patients, or stand fiftieth in line at one bed? Ask which hospital, and the student-to-bed reality. |
| Discipline & attendance | Does the college enforce attendance and testing? A place that lets students drift is setting them up to fail. |
If you’d like the full version of this list, we keep a deeper guide on why MBBS abroad works — and when it doesn’t, and a companion piece on the 5 reasons a foreign MBBS degree gets rejected in India.
The harder question: is your child ready?
Here is the part most consultants will never say, because it can cost them a sale. MBBS abroad is not for everyone. It is for the student who genuinely wants to be a doctor and is willing to study — seriously, most days, for years. If that isn’t your child yet, no college on earth will fix it.
Be honest at the kitchen table. Ask the real question: Are you ready to give this six years of your life and something like ten hours of study a day? If the honest answer is no, it is far kinder to know that now — than to discover it outside a courtroom five years from now. There is no shame in choosing a different path. There is only shame in pretending.
Why we built our answer around Nalanda
This is exactly why National Vidya Foundation stopped. When the NMC’s FMGL 2021 regulations arrived, most consultants kept selling. We didn’t. We paused admissions for four years and audited university after university, because we refused to send a student somewhere we wouldn’t send our own child.
Our search ended at Nalanda College of Medicine, Timor-Leste — a college built from scratch for Indian students and designed to meet NMC’s FMGL 2021 requirements: a 54-month course, a 12-month internship on the same campus, 100% English instruction, a CBME-mapped curriculum, and hands-on clinical training at the National Hospital.
But we won’t sell you a shortcut, because you’ve just read where shortcuts end. What we ask for is harder: about six years of your life and honest effort — think of it as roughly six hours of structured learning and four of your own revision each day. You bring that discipline. In return, we bring a college built to teach you properly, and a team that works twice as hard alongside you. What we will never do is promise a result you didn’t earn. The students in that Jaipur courtroom are what happens when someone sells that lie.
Not sure if your chosen college is safe? Find out before you pay.
Book a free 1-on-1 Clarity Call with Siddarth Jaiswal. If MBBS abroad isn’t right for your family, he’ll tell you honestly.
Book Your Free Clarity Call →
Or call us: ☎ 8100 256 256
What do you learn from this?
- The decision that matters is the first one. The forged certificate was the last domino; the wrong college was the first.
- A genuine degree is not enough. Without the FMGE, a real foreign MBBS degree cannot be used in India — and a fake certificate turns a setback into a crime.
- Don’t blame the child; check the setup. Verify the medium of instruction, duration, internship and clinical training before paying — on paper, not on trust.
- Go only if you’re ready to work. Six years and honest hours, or an honest “not for me.” Both are respectable. Pretending is not.
- There is no shortcut to becoming a doctor. There is only the right college, real effort, and time.
Get the next guide before your next payment
New NMC / FMGL updates and honest MBBS-abroad guides, straight to your inbox. No spam — just clarity.
Frequently asked questions
Is the FMGE compulsory if my MBBS degree from abroad is genuine?
Yes. A genuine foreign MBBS degree is not enough on its own. To practise in India you must clear the FMGE (being transitioned into the NExT), complete the required internship, and register with a state medical council. The Rajasthan case involved students whose degrees were genuine but who had not cleared the FMGE.
What is the FMGE pass rate?
It is low, and it varies from session to session. In recent sessions fewer than one in four candidates have cleared it, and in the toughest recent session that fell to roughly one in eight. In most sessions the majority of candidates do not clear it — which is why a strong foundation from the right college matters so much.
How do I choose the right MBBS college abroad?
Check, on paper, four things before paying: genuinely 100% English instruction, a minimum 54-month course at one institution, a separate 12-month internship at the same campus, and real hands-on clinical training. Ask for documents, not promises, and confirm the college is set up to meet NMC’s FMGL 2021 requirements.
Should every student go abroad for MBBS?
No. MBBS abroad suits students who truly want medicine and are ready to study seriously for years. If a student isn’t ready to commit that effort, it is better to reconsider early than to struggle with the licensing exam later.
What makes Nalanda College of Medicine different?
Nalanda College of Medicine, Timor-Leste was built for Indian students to meet NMC’s FMGL 2021 requirements — a 54-month course, a 12-month same-campus internship, 100% English instruction, a CBME-mapped curriculum, and clinical training at the National Hospital. NVF works exclusively with Nalanda after a four-year audit of other options.
Sources: Rajasthan High Court bail order as reported by Medical Dialogues (13 July 2026); FMGE conducted by the National Board of Examinations; NMC FMGL 2021 regulations.
