Alleging that students from other states have colluded with middlemen and college managements to block PG (medicine) seats which are sold later, associations of students and doctors staged a protest at Prof G Ram Reddy Centre for Distance Education on Osmania University premises here on Sunday.

Cases were registered against nine members of Telangana Junior Doctors Association (JUDA), Healthcare Reforms Doctors Association (HRDA) and Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) , said G Jagan, inspector of Osmania University police. The final phase of counselling for admission to PG (medicine) management quota seats was held on Sunday. Representatives of the associations demanded postponement of the counselling till investigation into the allegations was launched and completed. But the authorities went ahead with the counselling after the arrests.

According to rules, if a seat remains vacant or a candidate does not join the course making the management quota seat vacant after final phase of counselling, the management of a private medical college can fill that seat.

Aspirants to PG seats and association members alleged that some candidates were paid more than Rs10 lakh to block and later forgo the seats so that those seats can be sold at exorbitant prices up to Rs 2 crore depending on the specialisation.

Nearly half of the seats in private medical colleges in Telangana are filled by Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences (KNRUHS) based on merit. About 25 pc seats are under Management Quota (MQ) Sub-Category-1 for which a fee of Rs 24 lakh per academic year is charged, 15 pc seats come under NRI quota and 10 pc seats under Institutional Quota and the fee cannot be more than Rs 72 lakh per academic year.

The first round of counselling for seats under the Sub-Category 1 was held on May 2, and for Sub Categories-2 and 3 on May 3. The final round of counselling for management quota was held on Sunday at Osmania University.