Mumbai University scam: Cops hunt for 2 clerks

Letters sent to varsity seeking details of students, they will be summoned.

The Bhandup police is on the lookout for two more clerks working in the Mumbai University who were allegedly involved in the engineering exam answer sheet scam that was unearthed last week.

Police officials said letters have been sent to university and colleges asking for details of the students who were involved in the scam and whose answer sheets were seized last week. Soon they will be summoned to the police station, the officials said.

According to the police, the two clerks who were working in the engineering department at the Kalina campus on a contract basis had fled on May 20 after the police started arresting people involved in the scam.

“They were getting only Rs 6,000 as salary per month and this was a way to earn more money.”

Police investigations have revealed that security guard Prabhakar Vaze (50) and seven others collected the related answer sheets from these two wanted accused before passing them on to the students for a fee anywhere between Rs 10,000 and Rs 20,000 each.

The Mumbai police on Tuesday wrote to the Mumbai University asking them to submit details of students whose serial numbers have been found on the seized answer sheets.

“We have asked the university and the college officials concerned to give the details of the students, the number of students who have given the exams this past year, how many mark sheets are currently missing from the examination house of the Kalina campus and from where the exam papers were leaked,” said DCP Vinaykumar Rathod.

“Our probe indicates that answer sheets were removed for manipulation in more than three subjects in the engineering course of the university,” said Mr Rathod.

“Vaze was given the work of carrying the answer sheets in and out of the University’s campus in Kalina; he used to carry them in a bag. The papers were taken out of the examination hall before they were scanned. The MU employees would give the papers back to the students for not more than two days to fill up the blank spaces that were intentionally left behind by the students,” Mr Rathod said.

Mr Rathod added that the police was also verifying with the Mumbai University if charges of negligence could be added against them or not.

Meanwhile, the police has found five more answer sheets during their investigation on Tuesday taking the total number of answer sheets seized to 97.