Court remands 7 varsity officials to 3-day custody

The four University of Pune UoP officials arrested on Saturday for their alleged involvement in reevaluation malpractices at the examination department conspired with the three UoP junior clerks arrested earlier said the police in court while seeking custody of the accused yesterday Chatushringi police had arrested seven people mdash Rajendra Manohar Pandit 52 assistant registrar Lalsingh Wasave 58 deputy registrar Surendra Naidu 53 and Nanda Pawar 52 senior clerk and three students mdash on Saturday evening The court yesterday remanded all the suspects to police custody till January 15 Interestingly Pandit is a member of the factfinding committee constituted by the varsity to investigate the reevaluation scam Scamsters All the seven accused being brought to the court yesterday PicKrunal Gosavi Earlier the Chatushringi police had arrested three UoP junior clerks mdash Ramesh Kisan Shelar 43 Ashok Shankarrao Ranwade 44 and Chetan Gajanan Parbhane 38 mdash on January 8 While seeking police custody of the 10 suspects Mahesh Bolkotgi of Chatushringi police station told the court that they received information that the three junior clerks had received money to increase the marks at a particular hotel ldquoAt present the three clerks are not cooperating with us Hence there is a need to take them into confidence and investigate which hotel the monetary transaction took placerdquo said Bolkotgi He added that it is impossible that the studentsrsquo marks were increased without the role of these four officials ldquoThe exact role of these officials needs to be probed and hence police custody is neededrdquo said Bolkotgi The Omani students who have been arrested have been identified as Alamri Sami Hamud 22 Obed Ahmed Rehman 29 both residents of Kondhwa The third student is Mohsin Shaikh 19 of Mangalwar Peth Bolkotgi said that students arrests prove that some international students with the help of people like Gaus Shaikh and Sameer Shaikh who were arrested in October by the Cantonment police station for their role in the dummy students and revaluation scam increase their marks by paying money ldquoIt is necessary to investigate from whom these three students got their job done by paying moneyrdquo said Bolkotgi He also told the court that the police have seized the hard disks of the computers of these suspects and hope to get vital clues from the recovered items While opposing the police custody for the four UoP officials the defence lawyer said that his clients were only signatory authority and had no idea about such a scam He said that accused Pandit and Wasave have to sign thousands of mark sheets and it is very difficult for them to scrutinise the marks UoP taking it easy With the reputation of the UoP is taking a beating in the cashformarks scam it seems varsity officials are now dragging its feet on suspending the four arrested university officials While the rule indicates that all four UoP employees should be suspended as they are facing criminal charges the administration is taking its time on taking a decision ldquoWe have not suspended anyone yet Since Monday is public holiday the course of action will be decided on Tuesday onlyrdquo said Dr D D Dhavle officiating registrar of the UoP As an administrative head of the varsity the registrar has the authority to take a decision to suspend A senior UoP official on condition of anonymity said ldquoThe law indicates that if the officials of the said organisation are facing criminal charges and are in police custody for more than 48 hours the institute has to suspend the officialsrdquo mdash Niranjan Medhekaru00a0