Karnataka engineering seat-blocking scam: Government to file criminal complaint against IP addresses

The State government has decided to file a criminal complaint against Internet Protocol (IP) addresses from which multiple entries were made on the Karnataka Examinations Authority portal during government quota seat selection after the Common Entrance Test 2024 for admissions to engineering courses.

Following allegations of seat-blocking, the KEA issued notices to over 2,300 students and has now identified the IP addresses that were used for multiple registrations.

Speaking to the presspersons on Friday (November 8), M.C. Sudhakar, Minister for Higher Education, said, “The KEA has collected the IP address from which seats in the most sought-after courses in top colleges were selected by students, who later did not report to the colleges. Based on this, we have decided to file a criminal complaint.”

Many students have lost seats because of such fraudulent activity. Therefore, we want to put an end to such criminal malpractices and send a strong message to those involved, he said.

The Minister said the seat-blocking case was suspected to have taken place in BMS College of Engineering (92 seats), Akash Institute of Technology (82), New Horizon College of Engineering (52), Vivekananda Institute of Technology (45), Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering (34), Sir M.Visvesvaraya Institute of Technology (32) and M.V.J.College of Engineering (31 seats), and in streams like computer science, artificial intelligence, and other related subjects.

However, the government cannot act against the colleges at this stage since the role of these colleges needs to be investigated. Nor can the government issue a notice without proof,” the Minister said.

We suspect a huge racket is behind this, he added.

Published - November 08, 2024 10:09 pm IST