Pune University scam: 4 more staffers, 3 students held

In a major swoop, the police on Saturday evening arrested seven people, including four University of Pune (UoP) officials and three students, for alleged involvement in re-evaluation malpractices in the examination department of the university.

The arrested university officers include deputy registrar Rajendra Pandit, head of department of re-evaluation department Lalsingh Wasve, senior clerk Nanda Pawar and her assistant Surendra Ramdas Naidu. The arrested students include Alamri Hamid, Obed Ahmed Rehman Awari and Mohsin Mehboob Shaaikh.

Assistant police inspector and investigating officer Mahesh Bolkotgi said, “Our probe has revealed that the seven arrested people changed marks of students that were saved in computers of the re-evaluation department. Head clerk Pawar was to look after the re-evaluation of marks, while Naidu is her assistant. The role of Wasve and Pandit had come to the fore when we interrogated the three university staffers arrested earlier.”

Earlier, the Chatuhshrungi police had arrested UoP staffers Ramesh Kisan Shelar (43), Ashok Shankarrao Ranwade (44) and Chetan Gajanan Parbhane (38) in the case.

The arrested people allegedly increased the marks of 21 students, who had failed during the re-evaluation process.

The re-evaluation scam surfaced after the arrest of Gaus Shaikh and Salim Majid Shaikh, who were earlier nabbed by the Cantonment police for running dummy candidates for examination racket at Poona College of Arts, Commerce and Science.

Investigations in that case revealed that some students from the Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) and Bachelor of Computer Applications (BCA) streams who had failed in the examinations had scored good after applying for re-evaluation.

Bolkotgi said that during the interrogation of Gaus and Shaikh, the role of the three clerks came under the scanner and prompted UoP to set up a fact-finding committee.

“The committee submitted its report on December 13, and named the three junior clerks as suspects. After they were suspended and an FIR was registered against them, they absconded. However, they surrendered before cops later on,” Bolkotgi said.

The police have filed a case under Section 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using a forged document as genuine), 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant), 420 (cheating) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code after Sampada Joshi, controller of examination (UoP) lodged a police complaint.