22 students, two sweepers booked for cheating in CoC exam

Twenty-two students and two contractual staffers have been booked for cheating during a marine engineering examination in Mumbai. The students allegedly paid ₹8.5 lakh each to obtain the Certificate of Competency (CoC) through unfair means. The police have registered a case against the individuals under various sections of the Indian Penal Code.

Mumbai: Twenty-two students were booked for allegedly cheating during the Certificate of Competency (CoC) examination conducted by the Directorate General of Shipping for Marine Engineering Officer. Additionally, the police have booked two contractual staffers of the department as well for allegedly aiding in carrying out unfair means in the examinations.

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According to the police, after a few cheating incidents came to the fore, the department found that 22 students paid ₹8.5 lakh per head to get the CoC. In February 2022, during the examination for CoC, the Mercantile Marine Department found three answer sheets with one student.

During the enquiry, the student had said that he and two others had paid ₹8.5 lakh to Saurabh Agarwal and Sunil Tanwar and after that the department had summoned the three students, an officer from MRA Marg police station said, adding, “Later, the department carried out a detailed enquiry and checked all the answer-sheets and found that from January 2021 to February 2022, 22 students were involved in cheating during the examination. The department also found that two contractual sweepers – Sarvesh Gadade and Suresh Waghela – working with the department used to help in coding the question papers and answer sheets, keeping them properly and even sending them to the office of the DG Shipping.”

The officer added that Tanwar and Agarwal took money from 22 students and have even allowed some of them to write the exams from a hotel, apart from the examination centre – Nav Bhavan Building in Ballard Estate.

“We need to find who Tanwar and Agarwal are and why candidates have paid them to enable themselves to cheat in the examination,” the police officer said. A case has been registered under sections 420 (cheating), 120B (conspiracy), and 468 (forgery) of the Indian Penal Code, and relevant sections of the Maharashtra Prevention of Malpractices at University Board and Other Specified Examinations Act, 1982.

The complainant in the case is Purnachand Majhi, Engineer and Ship Server Cum Deputy Director General, Mercantile Marine Department. The department carries out technical inspections of the ships, issues various certificates to ships, conducts the examinations of professionals who want to work on ships and issues them certificates, including the CoC. These certificates are valid all over the world to work on ships for the specified designations.