KEA employee among 10 arrested for engineering seat-blocking scam

The Malleswaram police have arrested a 10-member gang, including a contractual employee of the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA), for their alleged involvement in the engineering seat-blocking scam.

The accused were identified as Sriharsha, 42, Prakash S.R., 42, Puneeth S.L., 27, Shashikumar S.K., 34, Purushotham, 24, Avinash B.S., 36, Tilak G., 60, Ravishankar S.C., (56), Dilshad Alam, 33, and Noushad Alam, 42.

The police have also recovered 13 mobile phones, three laptops, and several other documents which were allegedly set on fire to destroy the evidence as soon as the scam broke out. The recovered material has been sent to the forensics for analysis.

The issue came to light when the Administrative Officer of KEA, Islahuddin J. Gadiyal, noticed that 52 engineering government seats had been manipulated and blocked to help BMS Engineering College, Akash Institute of Engineering, and New Horizon Engineering College to sell under management quota. A police complaint was filed on November 13.

City Police Commissioner B. Dayananda said, “The racket’s modus operandi involved sourcing the details of the 52 seats using login passwords and a secret key of the candidates. The accused working in the KEA would share the details of the candidates with the other accused.”

Mr. Dayananda said that the accused would also rope in some meritorious students to write the entrance exam to get seats and use their login and password details to block seats. They also targeted nursing and other professional courses.

Based on the complaint, the police tracked down the accused from different places, including Goa, Shivamogga, Davanagere, Kadur, and Bengaluru.

This not only amounts to cheating the entire CET exam process but also deprives eligible candidates of their seats, the police said.

Asked if any action would be taken against the institutions mentioned in the FIR, M.C. Sudhakar, Minister for Higher Education, told The Hindu, “The case is still under investigation. We will take action after the final report.”

Published - December 03, 2024 08:42 pm IST