Mumbai: Some of the students admitted to the First Year College (FYJC) in the special round at KJ Somaiya College of Arts and CommerceVidyavihar, had scored in the 90s and hence could have comfortably secured seats in the first three rounds. This aroused suspicion among the college authorities during the examination, prompting them to examine the documents of all students from boards other than the state board.
After verification, it was found that the grades of some students scoring in the 50s and 60s had been fraudulently altered to 90% and above to make them eligible for admission.
The admissions of around 50 students were canceled after a racket was exposed in the college and two other institutes under the same management. Police arrested three individuals, two college staff members and a tout, while two others remain at large.
Sandeep Sangave, deputy director of school education, Mumbai division, said the college authorities became suspicious seeing students who scored in the 90s taking admission in special exams. “With such high scores, they could easily win places in the first three rounds of FYJC Admissions. Special rounds are organized for the benefit of students who find themselves without a seat even after three rounds of admission. This aroused their suspicion, leading them to investigate their documents and even cross-check with the respective schools,” Sangave said.
A representative of the university management said that some students were not even from the schools mentioned in their graduation certificates, which proves that these students had even falsified their graduation certificates. According to the FIR filed with the Tilak Nagar police station, more than 15 students also submitted fake graduation certificates.
For four students, the college did not get the real names of their schools, and one student’s scorecard was not even found on the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) website. Some of the school names mentioned in the FIR are the top wanted schools in the city.
After an independent investigation, the college first informed the vice principal’s office on October 24 through a letter. The college’s letter mentioned that 47 students were illegally admitted to the college by their employees on the basis of fake mark sheets and fake graduation certificates. Sangave ordered the three colleges to immediately cancel the admissions of these students and initiated administrative and criminal proceedings against the employees.
Even though the FIR mentioned that the parents had no idea of ​​the fake documents and they were promised management quota seats in lieu of money, a government official said that the documents are uploaded using the login id and the parents did not seem uneducated to completely ignore the false documents.
None of these parents have yet contacted the assistant principal’s office to seek redress for the canceled admissions. “The FYJC admission portal clearly asks students to sign an undertaking mentioning that in case of discrepancies in the information provided, their admissions will be cancelled,” Sangave said.