Madurai
The Syndicate of Madurai Kamaraj University has granted approval to the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti Corruption to conduct a preliminary enquiry into an alleged scam in which consolidated mark sheets were issued to more than 500 distance education candidates, who never registered for the course, wrote the examination, or paid the fees.
The certificates were allegedly issued by accepting a bribe of ₹1 lakh to these candidates who came through five distance education centres partnering with the university.
Findings of the initial enquiries shared by the DVAC with the MKU indicated that majority of these candidates did not even pay the registration fees to the university.
The DVAC has sought permission to investigate M. Rajarajan, additional controller of examinations, Directorate of Distance Education, MKU; R. Sathiyamoorthi, superintendent, EDP section, and J. Karthigai Selvan, computer programmer, EDP section, for their alleged involvement in this scam. Besides, those running the four distance education centres would also be investigated, the DVAC said in its communication to the university.
Following a letter from the DVAC seeking approval from university as per provisions of Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018, a special Syndicate of MKU that met on Wednesday granted approval for the preliminary enquiry, sources said.
The DVAC has said in its communication that records were forged to show as if these candidates registered for the courses in the year 2014 and 2015. Students usually paid a clearing fees to procure a course completion certificate post-examination. Only upon the receipt of the course completion can they receive their marksheets and provisional certificates.
None of the students received course completion certificates. They directly received their mark-sheets and paid their fees for three-year courses like B. Com in one go, said the sources.
The DVAC has said in its communication that in-depth probe was needed to find the candidates who benefited, what was the loss to the government, and the pecuniary advantage gained by the suspected officers.
