Lakhs of rupees changed hands in 'fraudulent' allotment of CET seats

Admission of 70 students may be cancelled; criminal action likely

Lakhs of rupees appear to have changed hands in the “fraudulent allotment” of seats for professional courses under the Common Entrance Test (CET), 2013, if one were to go by the claims of parents of one of the students who secured a medical seat this way. 

The parents of one of the students, who has been served notice by the State government for providing false documents to get a quota seat, claimed that they paid Rs 25 lakh to a Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) official for an MBBS seat. 

“We were misguided by the officials who promised us a seat in a good college,” the parents told Deccan Herald, on the condition of anonymity. “We desperately wanted our child to study a professional course. We now have got a notice and don’t know what to do. We will request the government to show sympathy on humanitarian grounds.” 

In total, the government has served notices on 70 students for submitting “false” documents to secure BE, MBBS and BDA seats. In one case, a student has been allotted an MBBS seat at the S Nijalingappa Medical College, Bagalkot. The student’s category is shown as ‘2AG’ (2A General Merit). In her CET application form, however, the student had mentioned her category as ‘3A’. 

On August 8, 2013, the student wrote to the director, KEA, saying she had “erroneously” mentioned her category as ‘3A’ while it should have actually been ‘2AG’. In another case, a student’s category has been changed from General Merit to General Merit Rural to facilitate a seat for her under the rural quota at the AJ Institute of Medical Sciences, Mangalore, although she does not belong to that category. 

Officials in the Higher Education department said tahsildars were equally responsible for issuing “false” caste certificates to some of these candidates. The State government has already ordered a probe by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) into the CET irregularities. Sources in the department said the allotment of seats of these students were likely to be cancelled once their replies to the notices were received. Besides, these students are likely to face criminal charges for submitting “false” documents. The inquiry report by the KEA also names three other officials in the KEA who were “hand in glove” with the Administrative Officer, S P Kulkarni, who has been suspended for the “fraud”. 

I’m innocent: KEA officer Kulkarni, however, has pleaded innocence in a letter to the government, according to official sources. In the letter, sources revealed, he claimed it was not his fault but that of the nodal officer who was responsible for verifying the documents.