T’puram: Kerala University’s (KU) syndicate has decided to dismiss from service an official who was placed under suspension for indulging in manipulation of its mark lists.
Section officer V Vinod was placed under suspension in February this year after an internal inquiry found him responsible for manipulating the mark list of several students. The recommendation for dismissal was passed at the syndicate meeting chaired by VC M Mahadevan Pillai, on the basis of a detailed inquiry report submitted by PVC PP Ajayakumar.
It was found that the section officer has modified the mark list of 74 candidates. During the hearing of students, at least six of them claimed that they were persuaded to bribe and earn higher marks. According to reports, he used to humiliate students initially for not securing a pass mark and later consoled them by offering help to improve marks for a bribe.
However, university is yet to cancel the degree certificate of around two dozen students whose mark lists were manipulated. The university had claimed that software glitches led to the inadvertent gifting of marks. This tampering had taken place in the case of 12 exams held between 2016 and 2019.
KU authorities had then sought the help of an outside agency to trace the glitches in the software. tnn