Bogus mark sheets and provisional certificates were issued to 500 students who never enrolled in Madurai Kamaraj University’s Directorate of Distance Education centres, a preliminary probe by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti Corruption (DVAC) has revealed.
The scam, according to the DVAC, allegedly happened with the connivance of M. Rajarajan, Additional Controller of Examinations, DDE, MKU, R. Sathiyamoorthi, Superintendent, Electronic Data Processing Section, DDE, and J. Karthigai Selvan, Computer Programmer, EDP section.
In a recent letter to the university, the DVAC said that records were forged in a backdated manner to show as if candidates had registered for the course in the academic and calendar years of 2014 and 2015. They had not even joined the course.
According to the DVAC, a majority of students admitted that they had not paid the registration fee or tuition fee.
Demand drafts in the university records, as evidence of payment of fees by these students, were found to be fake.
In the records of these students, details such as parent’s name, phone number, address and photos were not available. Instead, only the names of candidates were mentioned.
A majority of the candidates were shown to have got admitted to the course on the last date to submit application.
Four centres
Initial enquiries by the DVAC revealed that the candidates who were issued fake certificates were mainly from four centres partnering with MKU — Future Institute of Technology, Karunagappally; AIECT Distance Education Campus, Malappuram; SIMS (Saga Institute of Management Studies), Malappuram and Sarovaram College of Higher Studies, Thrissur. The DVAC said that it would conduct an investigation at these centres.
The agency suspects that ₹1 lakh was taken as bribe for issuing a consolidated mark sheet and provisional certificate.
