Monday, August 13, 2018

DVAC gathers crucial evidence

CHENNAI, AUGUST 13, 2018 00:00 IST



Summons to be issued to the former Controller of Examinations and others in a week.File photo 

Documents seized from Anna University, top officials’ statements recorded

The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) has examined senior officials of the Anna University and recorded their statements in connection with the answer scripts revaluation scam.

Crucial documents relating to the alleged irregularity of awarding marks grossly disproportionate to the performance of thousands of engineering students who applied for revaluation in April/May 2017 were seized. Investigators said they met the Controller of Examinations and others to record their version on the process of revaluation.

‘Violation of procedures’

“We have established a clear violation of the procedures. The students who are suspected to have been benefitted from the scam did not enter the number of pages they used for writing the answers (in the relevant column). There are reasons to believe that answers could have been written by the students at the time of revaluation...answer scripts are being sent for forensic analysis to rule out this suspicion,” a DVAC officer told The Hindu on Sunday.

The officer said that professors of some engineering colleges affiliated to Anna University had brokered the deal between the examiners and the students.

Answer scripts that were usually kept in safe custody for at east one year were disposed of in a bid to destroy evidence.

“Dozens of answer scripts that were picked for an internal inquiry have also been seized,” the officer said.

“The university has issued fresh guidelines on the process of revaluation and storage of answer scripts,” he added.

Investigators said the process of issuing summons to the suspended former Controller of Examinations, Prof. G.V. Uma, and others would commence in a week. Investments and property documents seized during searches on the office and residential premises of the accused officials were examined to check if there was any accumulation of assets disproportionate to their known sources of income.

Fresh revaluation

After obtaining the forensic report and opinion of document experts, the answer scripts seized in the case would be referred to a panel of examiners for fresh revaluation.

Enquiries revealed that the answer scripts of over 3.02 lakh engineering students were sent to the Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers Limited for recycling.

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