Like hundreds of thousands of Indian youths, 20-year-old Suraj Bhaskar, an ambitious young man from Uttar Pradesh, dreamed of becoming a doctor and making his family proud. Unfortunately, the stiff competition made that dream tough to achieve, as he failed the NEET medical school admission exam twice. But he didn’t let that stop him.
Suraj stands accused of resorting to a shocking gesture to ensure his admission into medical school. Police suspect that he cut off his own foot and made it look like he was the victim of a violent assault just so he could get into medical school under the institution’s disability quota. Indian law mandates a 5% reservation for people with disabilities (PwDs) in government and government-aided higher education institutions, including medical colleges.
The young man’s actions came to light after his older brother, Akash Bhaskar, informed police that unidentified assailants had attacked his brother in Khalilpur village, leaving him unconscious with a severed foot. A case was registered, and police launched an investigation that ended up finding a lot of inconsistencies in Suraj Bhaskar’s story.
“The accused tried to mislead the investigation with a fabricated story, but his claims did not stand scrutiny during sustained questioning and examination of evidence,” a police spokesperson told journalists, adding that they had reasons to believe that Suraj had severed his own foot.
Police recovered a diary belonging to Suraj in which he had written, “I will become an MBBS doctor in 2026,” and obtained statements from his girlfriend about his obsession with getting into medical school. They also learned that he had tried to obtain disability-related documents a few months prior, but failed.
According to a medical report, Suraj’s foot had been cleanly cut off, most likely with a machine. The wound was too clean tohave been caused by a violent blade attack. The syringes found in a field near where Suraj was found also suggest that he had used anesthetics to numb his legs before performing the amputation.
“The victim repeatedly changed his statement and tried to mislead police,” a police officer said, adding that Suraj Bhaskar had been sent to a trauma centre for better treatment. His foot has yet to be recovered.
Although police are convinced that the 20-year-old man severed his foot himself in order to get into medical school without having to pass the NEET exam, his gesture is so shocking that no one really knows what legal actions can be taken against him. If his plan to get into medical school fails, having to go through the rest of his life on one foot is probably punishment enough.
