Engg scam: More answer sheets missing?

The accused would sneak out the answer sheets of the candidates who have paid them, contact the candidates and ask them to fill in the answers and return the sheets, said the police.

The eight Mumbai university employees accused in the engineering answer sheets scam allegedly found a way to compromise the procedure followed when storing answer sheets after an examination, said investigators. The Bhandup police, who are probing the scam, are now conducting an assessment to check if more answer sheets are missing from the storeroom.

Mumbai University (HT Photo)

According to the police, the answer sheets usually kept in the storeroom are scanned and its digital format is sent to the examiner who is to check the answer sheets — a procedure which takes around 2 to 3 days. “The accused were aware of the procedure. Before the scanning procedure, they would sneak out the answer sheets of the candidates who have paid them, contact the candidates and ask them to fill in the answers and return the sheets,” said a police officer privy to the investigation.

The police have, so far, recovered 92 answer sheets, which indicate that as many students were beneficiaries. While the students have been made accused in the case, they are not likely to be arrested, said a source.

“While we recovered 92 answer sheets, we have to ascertain if more were taken out. For this, we will co-ordinate with the university officials. We suspect that many answer sheets could have been taken out. If more sheets are missing from the store room, we will find the details of the candidates,” said the police officer.

According to the police, lack of vigilance and negligence on part of the authorities made it easy for the accused to sneak out the answer sheets. “We will explain to the university where there were lapses on their part,” said the officer.