Pune: After one and half years of the revaluation or cash for marks scam that rocked the University of Pune, the internal inquiry set up by the varsity has given clean chit to four employees and forced voluntary retirement to three others. The assistant registrar of examinations and heads of the revaluation and the exam sections were among the people who were arrested in the case.
The scam came to light after confessions were made by one of the suspects, Gaus Shaikh, who used to provide dummy candidates of students to appear in different exams in four colleges and Salim Shaikh, who was working as a clerk with Poona College. Salim had contacts in the examination section of the university. Using his contacts, Salim used to get marks of some students increased in the revaluation process.
Dr Narendra Kadu, the Registrar, University of Pune, said that after the incident came to light, they had lodged a police complaint and set up an independent departmental inquiry against all seven staffers from the varsity's exam department.
"As per the inquiry committee report, headed by a retired judge, four employees, viz., assistant registrar of examinations Rajendra Pandit, revaluation section head Lalsingh Wasawe, section staffer Surendra Naidu and senior clerk Nanda Pawar have been given clean chit," he said.
The university, however, took stringent action against junior clerks from the examination department. They are Ramesh Shelar, 43, Ashok Ranwade, 44 and Chetan Parbhane, 38, whose roles, the report claims, have cropped up in the case. All three employees have been given forced voluntary retirement.
As per sources from the university, the top officials have been given clean chit because the inquiry committee did not find any evidence against them.
The Chatushringi police are also conducting their own inquiry and they have already filed a charge sheet against 12 people, including seven universtiy staffers.
"Ours is nothing to do with the police inquiry as the cops will continue investigating the case," Kadu said.
There were 21 students, majority of foreign nationals, from various colleges doing BCom, BCA and BBA, whose marks were inflated during the revaluation process.
Box
Head: The scam
* It came to light after prime accused Gaus Shaikh, an illiterate mechanic, spilled the beans following his arrest on October 9, 2012.
* Shaikh, kingpin of the racket, provided dummy candidates of students to appear in different exams in four colleges.
* Exam department officials passed students who had failed in examinations by increasing their marks during revaluation of answer sheets. The kickbacks were paid to them by Shaikh.
* Shaikh used to charge between Rs15,000 and Rs20,000 per subject and sometimes, Rs50,000 for a single subject.
* Investigations began after the Cantonment police presented the university administration with a list of 21 students whose marks were increased after
revaluation.
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