• Mandi Police Inspector, staff booked at same Station 

Mysore/Mysuru: Busting a fake answer script racket being run under the wings of University of Mysore (UoM), the Mandi Police hushed up the matter without public knowing about the crime that was busted at a city lodge. 

Shockingly, even the Police top brass of the city were not informed about the racket and only now, based on the orders issued by City Police Commissioner Dr. Chandragupta, a case has been registered against Mandi Inspector Narayanaswamy and staff of the same Police Station for hushing up the case.

Interestingly, it is the same Police who pose for photos along with criminals in front of media whenever a minor crime is busted. Despite being a major racket of this magnitude, the Police hushed up this one and they are in the dock now. The memo asking the Mandi Police to book the FIR was issued by Dr. Chandragupta yesterday.

The Mandi Police Sub-Inspector has filed the FIR against six including the Inspector of the same Police Station. Shocked by the answer script racket that was thriving under its very nose, the UoM too is conducting a probe. Interestingly, till now the University did not even have a clue about the racket.

The accused in the racket are Mohammed Nissar, an employee of the UoM, contract employee Rakesh, students Chandan and Chethan and Mandi Police Inspector Narayanaswamy and staff. 

Chethan is the owner of the lodge on Bengaluru-Nilgiri Road. The accused used to replace the prepared answer scripts with the original ones to help students.

Full-fledged racket

The full-fledged racket flourished in the lodge where arrangements were made to rewrite hundreds of answer scripts and replace them with the original ones written by candidates while writing papers in the examination hall. Though the Mandi Police had raided the lodge, the accused were let off and the Police failed to take action against the perpetrators of the crime. 

The incident came to light after Somasundar, Joint Secretary of Karnataka Rashtra Samithi Paksha, filed a complaint at City Police Commissioner’s Office on Tuesday. He alleged that the first four accused were involved in preparing fake answer scripts of B.Sc Chemistry exam of the UoM at the lodge on Apr. 21. The exams were conducted on Apr. 15 and 17.

Quiet burial

Mandi Police Inspector Narayanaswamy, who got a tip-off about the racket, raided the lodge along with his team and took all the accused to the Police Station. However, all the accused were let off. Before that, Narayanaswamy collected only their statements without filing a case.

Somasundar mentioned in his complaint that considering the severity of the irregularities, Narayanaswamy should have arrested the accused and sent them to jail. Neither the FIR was booked nor were the University authorities informed. The case was quietly buried and the accused were allowed to go scot-free. Shockingly, even the higher officers were not informed by the Mandi Police Inspector.

Somasundar, however, got this information from the student wing of the party and decided to pursue the case. According to the FIR, after the Chemistry exams, a few UoM employees and students prepared the answer sheets at the lodge which were to be replaced with the original answer sheets.

Narayanaswamy and team raided the lodge and took the accused into custody. Hundreds of answer sheets and other materials used to prepare fake answer sheets were also seized by the Police. But the case was not registered, the FIR stated. All the persons named in the FIR have been booked under IPC Sections 420, 406, 408, 470, 471, 472, 473 and 474.

University orders probe

Meanwhile, UoM Registrar Prof. R. Shivappa told Star of Mysore this morning that the answer sheets are sent to the University-affiliated colleges according to the strength of the students. If any student is absent for the exam, it is the responsibility of that particular college management to send back the empty answer sheets to the University.

He further said that the empty answer sheets from Maharani’s Science College was not sent back and added that the person should be held responsible. “After we got information about the answer script scam, a Committee headed by Registrar (Evaluation) Prof. Jnanaprakash has been constituted to conduct a probe and collect details. The Committee was constituted following instruction from Vice-Chancellor Prof. G. Hemantha Kumar,” he said.