College admissions scam: Two clerks, aide arrested for forging documents

The Tilak Nagar police have arrested two senior clerks from Somaiya Vidyavihar University who allegedly forged documents for at least 49 students seeking admission to Std XI at SK Somaiya College KJ Somaiya College and SK Somaiya Vidyamandir School The accusedmdashMahendra Vishnu Patil 45 of SK Somaiya College and Arjun Rathod 43 of KJ Somaiya Collegemdashhave been employed by the varsity for over two decades according to the policeWhile carrying out their duties during the admission process Patil and Rathod allegedly tweaked the grades of lowscoring students and uploaded forged marksheets and leaving certificates LCs to the governmentrsquos website Another accused Devendra Suryakanth Sadaye 55 allegedly assisted the duo in filing admission forms that students are required to submit and upload on the government website after their results are announcedldquoThere are two forms students are supposed to fill up and uploadmdashone before their results are declared and the other after In the second form students mention their scores preferred colleges etc Sadaye helped the clerks by forging marks and percentages to ensure the applications fit within the collegesrsquo cutoff criteriardquo said a police officialThe matter first came to light two months ago during the admission process when the college administration noticed irregularities in some studentsrsquo marks They reported the issue to the State Education Department whose technical team flagged discrepancies in the authenticity of the documents uploaded on the website An internal assessment by the scrutiny committee subsequently uncovered fraudulent activity in the admission processFollowing this Dr Kishan H Pawar principal of KJ Somaiya College and the complainant in the case registered at Tilak Nagar police station summoned all the parents and students whose names were linked to forged documents via email on October 15During the scrutiny process the documents submitted on Somaiya Collegersquos website and those on the state governmentrsquos website were flagged as ldquoFake Marksheet Confirmed Case with Eligibility Checkrdquo stated the FIR The FIR further mentions that students who scored below 60 per cent in Std 10 had forged documents reflecting scores of over 90 per centlsquoProcess cost Rs 1 lakhrsquoWhile some parents appeared before the college authorities to explain themselves they revealed the names of those involved in the fraudmdashPatil and Rathodmdashalong with unidentified individuals referred to as Kamlesh Bhai Jitu Bhai and Babu Bhai who had been in constant contact with the parents either outside the college campus or via phone calls The police have launched a manhunt to look for the unknown accusedA parent told midday that after she and her son completed the form submission formalities they were approached by a group of four to five men outside the college campus including Patil ldquoThey asked if we wanted admission through the management quota When I informed them about my sonrsquos percentage Patil assured me it could be lsquomanagedrsquo but would cost some money I trusted him because he said I would only need to pay once the admission was secured I did as instructed forwarding any OTPs we received to himrdquo she said adding that the rate for the entire process was set at R1 lakhA police officer said ldquoWhen Form 2 is verified by the admission portal and the collegersquos website a registered parentrsquos number receives an OTP which must be submitted to lock the form and complete the submission for further processing In this college the two accused were responsible for managing this activity instead of the parentsrdquoThe officer added ldquoThe motive was financial gain as the clerks charged no less than a lakh per student What must also be considered is the parentsrsquo willingness to participate in this scheme driven by their desire to secure admissions for their children in prestigious collegesrdquoAs per information received from the police all the students whose documents turned out to be forged are from nonstate boards as state board students only need to enter their seat numbers in the admission form after which the system automatically pulls up their marks which is not the case with nonstate board applicants who have to fill a variety of details like markslsquoZero tolerance for fraudrsquoThe spokesperson of the Somaiya Trust stated that the institute authorities registered the FIR on Monday and that the irregularities were during a routine review ldquoWe had approached the police after anomalies were identified in specific admission documents during our routine verification process Once the discrepancies were confirmed we promptly notified the authorities and contacted the police With the Directorate of Educations guidance and support we annulled the fraudulent admissionsrdquoldquoSomaiya Vidyavihar maintains a zerotolerance stance on fraudulent activities and assures everyone that these actions were carried out in compliance with the guidelines set forth by the Directorate of Education to safeguard the integrity of the admission processrdquo the institutions spokesperson stated All three have been booked for multiple offences including cheating under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita