BENGALURU: Close on the heels of an evaluation scam breaking out in its midst, Bangalore University (BU) is planning to form committees to probe about 30 lakh answerscripts from the past two years to ascertain the gravity of the fraud.
While 804 Optical Mark Reader (OMR) answerscripts of under-graduate and post-graduate students are currently under scrutiny, the university suspects the number is much higher as it believes an organised team was behind the scam. University sources say they will have to compare about 30 lakh OMR answerscripts since November 2018.
Venugopal KR, vice-chancellor of Bangalore University, told TOI they will constitute two committees which will investigate the scam and look into answerscripts as far as November 2018. An information technology (IT) audit team of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) will investigate data of the answerscripts, which will run into several lakhs, to ascertain how many of them were fudged. Another team comprising computer science faculty members and legal experts will check where the illegal intervention happened. “We are going to take stock of each action and will ensure we put an end to these kind of practices,” he said.
Sources said the university has issued notices to its affiliated colleges to return the marks cards to ascertain their veracity and that the marks cards issued previously will also be cross-verified. BU registrar (administration) K Jyothi said thousands of students have passed and their marks cards have been issued. The vice-chancellor will take a call on how to go about it.
JT Devaraju, registrar (evaluation), did not comment. MR Doreswamy, adviser, education reforms, to government of Karnataka, on Wednesday sought a judicial probe into the examination scam. In his letter, he urged that besides a Criminal Investigation Department (CID) probe, the government needs to appoint a retired high court judge to conduct inquiry into the scam and demonstrate zero tolerance towards such criminal activities.
In the FIR filed, Jyothi accused a firm hired to scan OMR answerscripts, university employees, a few students and middlemen of the fraud. Interestingly, on December 29 last year, the firm itself had filed an FIR with Rajajinagar police against three employees, alleging they had tampered with the OMR answerscripts.
‘Numbers fudged ’
University sources having access to the 804 OMR answerscripts said they belonged to about 250 students. In 716 cases, the students had secured less marks, in some instances even zero, but were given pass and even first class (above 60) marks as well. “In 88 answerscripts, we found that the students had secured marks above first class, but the scores were reduced,” they added.
The sources, who were part of the preliminary audit, said, “An organised gang would approach students scoring low marks and strike a deal with them to get them good marks. The students would be asked to apply for retotalling or revaluation, where marks they wanted would be awarded,” they said.