Srinagar, Nov 19 (IANS): The state police Crime Branch has unearthed a multi-million-rupee scam where candidates seeking admission to professional colleges in Jammu and Kashmir paid huge sums of money and stayed in a private hotel to write their tests.

Professional entrance tests are conducted every year in Jammu and Kashmir by the Board of Professional Entrance Exams (BOPEE) for selecting candidates from thousands of aspirants for medical, engineering, agricultural and other degree courses.

The Crime Branch registered a case following complaints about the selections made by BOPEE in 2012, and started investigations.

What created suspicion over the selections was that many candidates finishing at the top of the entrance test had poor academic records.

A senior officer of the Crime Branch told IANS these candidates selected for MBBS courses after passing the BOPEE 2012 test, were found performing very poorly in their professional colleges.

"From the very start, the conduct of the then BOPEE chairman, Mushtaq Ahmad Peer, was under our scanner. Two close associates of Peer had sold the BOPEE 2012 test papers to over a dozen candidates belonging to a particular area in south Kashmir Anantnag district," the officer, preferring anonymity, said.

"After accepting huge sums of money from the parents of these candidates, the BOPEE officials set up a special centre for them in a hotel on the Boulevard Road in Srinagar," he said.

The officer also confirmed that Peer's residences were searched by a Crime Branch team during the night in Srinagar as also in Jammu and documents concerning movable and immovable properties were seized.

The official said bank accounts and records of immovable properties of those parents who had paid hefty amounts to Peer and his flunkeys have also been examined.

"We have an air-tight case and we will soon charge the involved people in the court of law," the officer said.