Kerala University on Tuesday, 16 July, is going to probe the recovery of 16 bundles of sealed answer sheets from the house of a student, who is the main accused in the University College case. The discovery of the bundles led to suspicions of an exam scam in the college.
According to reports, the university will get the Controller of Examinations to check for a larger scam. Speaking to the Times of India, Vice-Chancellor VP Mahadevan Pillai clarified that the university was not responsible for the missing bundles of answer sheets which was with the University College.
He further added that the university did not have the practice of taking back surplus booklets from colleges after each set of exams. Mahadevan also added that the university would decide later on what action is to be taken in the issue.
Wads of University Exam Booklets Found
16 bundles of exam papers with 11 pages and 22 sides were found from the residence of Sivaranjith, the third-year student and Students' Federation of India (SFI) unit president who allegedly stabbed another student and SFI worker, Akhil. The bundles were found by the police during a raid in his house.
Among the 16 booklets, five of them had answers written inside them and the rest were empty. Answer sheets for the years 2016, 2017 and 2018 were present inside Sivaranjith’s house in Attukal. Some of the papers were sealed with the University Physical Education director’s seal. The police later retrieved the seal from his house.
Responding to this issue, the Vice-Chancellor said that the seal must have been fake and that there was no seal for the university physical education director.
Ironically, Sivaranjith was a rank holder from Kasaragod for the Police Constable (Armed Police Battalion) exam conducted by the Kerala Public Service Commission (KPSC).
In fact, he secured 92 marks and was the first rank holder from the district. His results will now be cancelled following this and a fresh probe will be launched to investigate the cheating and stealing cases.
According to reports, two other accused, who are SFI committee members, also passed the Kerala PSC test.
On Friday, a scuffle between the SFI committee members of the university college and Akhil led to the latter being stabbed in the chest. Sivaranjith is believed to have stabbed the third-year student over a trivial fight about signing inside the campus.
Following the incident, the accused which included seven students and 23 outsiders remained absconding for a day. Six of the students have now been arrested by the Kerala police and the search is on for the rest of the accused.
(The article was first published on The News Minute. It has been republished with their permission).
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