28 July,2026 01:14 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
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The Maharashtra State Common Entrance Test (CET) Cell has lodged a police complaint after an audio clip surfaced in which a woman allegedly offered an engineering aspirant a "special" examination centre for Rs 12 lakh, claiming it would help secure an exceptionally high percentile.
The development comes amid growing concerns raised by students, parents and the Opposition Congress over the credibility of the Maharashtra Common Entrance Test (MH-CET) for engineering admissions, following reports of candidates with modest academic records securing near-perfect percentiles.
State CET Cell Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer Dilip Sardesai said the authorities had taken cognisance of the unverified audio recording despite not receiving a formal complaint.
"The MH-CET Cell has not received any complaint in connection with the audio clip. We have taken cognisance of it and lodged complaints with the State Cyber Cell and the Azad Maidan police," Sardesai told reporters.
The alleged audio clip purportedly features a woman offering a parent a "special" examination centre in exchange for Rs 12 lakh, claiming the arrangement would help the student secure admission to a reputed government-aided engineering college.
Sardesai dismissed allegations that students could influence the allotment of examination centres.
He explained that candidates can choose four preferred examination cities, while female candidates may opt for centres within their home district. Students are informed of the city where they will appear about a week before the examination, while the exact centre is disclosed only two days before the test.
"No student has the final say in selecting the examination centre. It is allotted randomly through a computerised process," he said.
He added that while the CET Cell would analyse cases that had attracted attention, the audio clip alone could not be treated as evidence of wrongdoing by candidates who secured high scores.
The controversy intensified after Maharashtra Congress spokesperson Balaji Gade questioned the results of two candidates from Nanded, alleging that despite scoring modest marks in the Class 12 board examination and the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), they secured 99 percentile in the MH-CET.
"How did they score so high? Did they get the examination paper in advance? How was it leaked?" Gade asked in a video statement.
These allegations have not been independently verified.
Sardesai said isolated cases should not be used to cast doubt on an examination taken by lakhs of students.
According to the CET Cell, 4.63 lakh students appeared for the MH-CET this year. Of these, 2.35 lakh participated in the Centralised Admission Process (CAP), while 2.29 lakh did not.
He said around 25,000 candidates outside the CAP secured more than 80 percentile, while 4,319 students scored above 95 percentile.
"If we had the data of the remaining high-scoring candidates outside CAP, it would have helped us analyse the issue more comprehensively," Sardesai said.
He maintained that statistical outliers are possible in any large-scale examination and that a few unusual cases should not be treated as proof of malpractice.
Several parents and students have demanded an independent investigation into the examination process, claiming that candidates with relatively low scores in the Class 12 board examinations had secured exceptionally high MH-CET percentiles.
Some students said the alleged irregularities could affect admissions to top engineering colleges by pushing down the rankings of genuine high performers.
Teacher Dinesh Kumar Gupta also questioned the results, stating that the MH-CET is generally considered more challenging than the Class 12 board examination and that cases involving exceptionally high improvements in performance should be examined thoroughly.
The Maharashtra CET Cell has said it will analyse the cases under scrutiny while the police investigate the authenticity of the audio clip.
(With inputs from PTI)
