'IIT profs guilty of facilitating cheating'

Two Indian Institute of Technology faculty members facilitated large-scale cheating at this year’s IIT joint entrance examination, a probe panel has found, raising fresh questions about a test repeatedly hit by controversy in recent years.

Two Indian Institute of Technology faculty members facilitated large-scale cheating at this year’s IIT joint entrance examination, a probe panel has found, raising fresh questions about a test repeatedly hit by controversy in recent years.

The directors of the IITs have banned civil engineering professor CSP Ojha and chemical engineering assistant professor Prakash Biswas, both from IIT Roorkee, from any exam-related work for five years.

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This is the first time IIT faculty members — who set question papers and are in charge of invigilation at test centres — have been indicted for selectively allowing some students to cheat by tricking the multiple security layers in place for the JEE.

A student believed to have been the principal beneficiary of the cheating has been banned for life from attempting any IIT entrance test.