GUWAHATI: Cash to the tune of up to Rs 22,000 for one subject exchanged hands in the recently busted cash-for-marks scam surfacing at the Down Town University in the city.
The matter first came to light when the administrative legal officer of the university filed a complaint with the Panikhaiti police station on June 25 saying that they suspected the involvement of some faculty members in taking money from students on the pretext of ensuring them pass marks in their examinations.
So far, the police have apprehended one former student of the university as well as a teacher in connection with the case.
“We registered a case after receiving the complaint under sections 120 B and 420 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). We found the involvement of one faculty member and one former student of the university and both of them have been arrested,” Purabi Mazumdar, ACP Noonmati police station informed G Plus.
She added that the scam was going on since 2012 and the modus operandi of the persons involved in the scam was primarily first identifying students who were academically weak and then luring them into paying them for assuring them passing marks in their examinations in various subjects.
“One of the accused is a faculty member named Gunajit Choudhury while the other is a former student named Jal Nuruddin Ahmed who passed out of the university in 2015,” said Mazumdar.
The arrested accused, Jal Nuruddin, revealed during interrogation that some students would pay Rs 5000 while the others were charged Rs 10,000. In some cases, they also charged Rs 22,000, said police.
She added that Ahmed was arrested on June 29 from Barpeta while Choudhury was arrested on July 4. Ahmed was a student of Choudhary, which is how the two came in touch with each other and remained so after passing out of the university too.
On the other hand, authorities at the Down Town University said that they first came to know about the scam when a student tipped them off about a possible nexus of students and teachers involved in the same.
“We filed an FIR based on this information received by the student. After this, the police started their investigation,” said the legal officer of Down Town University, Ningthem M.
He added that they suspected the involvement of four of their employees in the alleged scam and manipulating the answer scripts and have named them in the FIR.
“Currently we are helping the police with the investigation,” informed Ningthem.
The police informed that the accused used to target students who were weak in studies and after the results were declared, they would get in touch with the students who could not pass the examination.
“This way they took a large amount of money from the students. They set different rates depending on the subject. The rate was also dependent on the capability of the student to pay,” said Mazumdar.
The police are further investigating the involvement of a few more ground-level staff of the university and are also exploring the possible involvement of people from the examination department of the university.
