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DVAC begins questioning accused profs in cash-for-marks scandal

600 Questions To Be Asked, Uma Will Be Quizzed Next

Siddharth.Prabhakar@timesgroup.com

Chennai:

The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti Corruption (DVAC) has started questioning the accused in the re-evaluation scam uncovered in Anna University.

While former controller of exams G V Uma is an accused, the DVAC has prepared a set of 600 questions to be posed to assistant professors R Sivakumar and P Vijaykumar, co-accused in the case. In the re-evaluation/ paper-chasing scam, many students are alleged to have paid a bribe of up to ₹10,000 each to artificially boost their marks during reevaluation.

The questionnaire will delve into the basic modus operandi of the scam. For instance, a student who got seven marks in the first evaluation, managed 55 in the re-evaluation.

In both instances, however, the answer script was checked by the same examiner. “This is a clear administrative lapse by those in charge of the re-evaluation. The two will be questioned on how the same examiner was given that particular candidate’s answer sheet,” a DVAC source said.

Sivakumar was the zonal officer and Vijaykumar the zonal co-ordinator of the re-evaluation centre at University College of Engineering, Tindivanam, where the scam happened last year, in relation to the April/ May 2017 exams. Questioning them could give key inputs to the DVAC, as the two were in charge of appointing examiners for re-evaluation at the centre. It was also their responsibility to give the chosen examiners answer scripts that were not previously assessed by them.

The questioning, which started on Friday, will go on for at least a week, DVAC sources said. A team of investigators and experts would continuously question the two, and the answers given by them will be recorded.

Uma is likely to be questioned after this, but she will be given a different questionnaire which will be equally exhaustive, the source said. “Some of the questions to be posed to Uma will be framed based on the answers given by these two professors,” the source added.

During the April/ May 2017 exams, 3.02 lakh students had applied for re-evaluation (by paying ₹700 each as fee to the university). Out of this, 73,733 obtained pass marks after re-evaluation, while the scores of 16,636 students improved.

Investigators say even if 50% of the students who applied for re-evaluation had paid a bribe of up to ₹10,000, the net worth of the scam around this exam alone would be around ₹40 crore. Sivakumar, Vijaykumar and Uma are also alleged to have destroyed a number of incriminating answer sheets for which the enhanced marks were awarded. They would be grilled about that as well, DVAC sources said.