Undergraduate and postgraduate students of Katihar Medical College and Hospital on Wednesday accused police officers of harassment during search operations over an alleged admission racket at the health hub.

A joint team of Patna and Katihar officers led by Patna deputy superintendent of police (Sachivalaya) Manish Kumar is stationed in Katihar from Tuesday to gather strong evidence against the medical college’s chairman and managing director, Ahmad Ashfaque Karim. He was arrested on June 15 on charges of cheating and forgery in examinations and the Arms Act.

The medical students, however, alleged that the joint team has been seizing their private diaries and forcing them to confess that they had paid bribes to Karim for admission to the college. The female students alleged that male constables were coming into their hostels to quiz them though women constables were present in the team.

Dr Rizwana, an intern at Katihar Medical College and Hospital, told The Telegraph: “Even though the team has female constables, the male constables are coming into the hostel and asking us objectionable questions. We have come here to study and not to be harassed by the police for no fault of our own. We are completely fed up with their attitude in the past two days .”

Arshad Khan, a final-year MBBS student, said: “We do not have a problem with the search operation, but only with how the police are treating us. They forced us to say that we had taken admission to the college by paying money. The personnel have been coming to the hostel time and again to quiz us about the same thing. We are being mentally tortured.”

Over 200 police constables are involved in the search operation. While the raid was still on at the time of filing the report, The Telegraph could not speak to DSP (Sachivalaya) Manish Kumar as he did not pick up.

Apart from raiding the student hostels, the joint team is also searching the guesthouse and administrative building on the health premises to collect evidence against Karim.

Sources said the police recovered several documents, including passbooks and land documents, from the administrative building of the Katihar Medical College and Hospital. A source said: “On Tuesday, the team conducted a raid at Karim’s official residence on the premises of the health hub. Rs 1 lakh and some land documents were recovered.”