Medical exams: Mafia hand in paper leakage

BANGALORE: A "crime syndicate" obtained questions prior to this year''s common entrance test (CET) and leaked them to a set of candidates, a preliminary investigation into a scam in the non-Karnataka medical admissions has revealed.
Former CET cell special officer B.A. Harish Gowda, who conducted the inquiry, has said 112 students are suspected to be beneficiaries of the conspiracy.
All the 112, who are non-Karnataka candidates, have obtained high marks in the CET, but scored abnormally low in the qualifying exams.
All of them have topped this year''s CET non-Karnataka candidates'' rank lists and have bagged admissions in prestigious colleges, like M.S. Ramaiah Medical College, Devraj Urs Medical College, Kolar, and Kempe Gowda Institute of Medical Sciences, Bangalore.
In fact, it was the managements who blew the whistle. A few months ago, they hinted to the government about the possibility of exam-related malpractices, after comparing students'' qualifying exam and CET scores. It was at the behest of the managements that the government ordered the inquiry.
Gowda, who is Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) secretary, has served show-cause notices on the 112 candidates. He has, however, ruled out the possibility of any malfeasance in the examination centres, as "hundreds of officials are involved in conducting the exams and such a large number of officials colluding for malpractice is not possible."
The scrutiny of OMR answersheets and nominal rolls of examination centres has also ruled out irregularities in the conduct of CET.
That the crime syndicate was at work has been established by scrutinising the answersheets of these candidates, which reveals a discernible pattern. All of them have answered a set of questions either correctly, incorrectly or have left them blank.
Incidentally, 24 of these 112 candidates had appeared for the CET 2002 and performed very badly, failing to obtain medical seats. In comparison, their performance in the CET 2003 is extraordinary and beyond comprehension.
Similarly, the performance of the remaining 88 candidates in the CET 2003, in comparison to their performance in the qualifying examination is also extraordinary, Gowda said in the show-cause notice.
"With the examination malpractice ruled out, it is clear that a person or a group of persons had masterminded the scam by acquiring knowledge of bulk of the questions and informing candidates the correct answers before the commencement of the examination," Gowda said in the show-cause notices.
Candidates can file objections to the notices within 15 days or appear in person on November 18.
In CET 2003, 161 medical seats, 149 dental seats and 2,905 engineering seats were offered to non-Karnataka candidates.