The accused were produced in a court and remanded in police custody till September 19. (Representational)The Cyber Police Station of Pune City Police on Monday arrested a former employee of the Symbiosis Centre for Distance Learning for allegedly increasing marks of 178 students illegally during re-evaluation.
After the arrest, Sandeep Hengale (49) was produced before a court in Pune and remanded to police custody for two days. The alleged fraud came to light in the internal assessment conducted by the institute. An FIR in the case has been registered at the Cyber Police Station against Hengale and one former student of the institute.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Cyber Crime and Economic Offences) Sambhaji Kadam confirmed the arrest and said a search has been launched for the other suspect. As per the FIR, the offence had taken place between September 2018 and December 2019 at the Symbiosis Centre for Distance Learning, when Hengale was employed in the evaluation branch of the institute.
The suspects allegedly tampered with the computerised system of re-evaluation of the exam assessment. The alleged malpractices came to light in the internal probe conducted by the institute authorities after which they approached the police. After the internal probe, Hengale was asked to resign from the position.
Police said the suspects fraudulently increased the marks of students in exchange for money. In the application to the court seeking custody of Hengale, the prosecution said that police have to seize various electronic devices used for the crime and also have to probe the modus operandi.