Higher Education Department seeks probe into previous years' KEA engineering seat allotments too

Bengaluru: The Higher Education department has requested the investigating officers probing the seat blocking scam reported during the seat allotment of engineering courses this year at Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) to consider even previous years seat allotments for the inquiry.

Following the arrest of at least 10 people, including one outsourced employee of the KEA, the Higher Education Minister Dr M C Sudhakar said, "We suspect a bigger racket operating for several years now and we have requested the investigating officers to consider seat allotments done during the previous years too."

Answering the queries about involvement of private engineering colleges in the scam, the minister mentioned that even government was waiting for the inquiry to reveal the details.

"We cannot come to a conclusion about the role of the institutions at this stage as the investigation is going on. Let the investigation reveal everything," he added.

Meanwhile, talking about students/candidates involvement in the scam, the minister opined that there were some genuine cases which were exceptional.

"If the students have genuine reasons for not reporting to the respective colleges after opting for the seat, they can be excused. But in the case of intentional selection for the purpose of blocking the seat, then action will be initiated against such students. The police are investigating all the angles in the case," the minister added. 

According to Dr Sudhakar, seat blocking scam was rampant in medical courses earlier. "After the introduction of National Eligibility cum Entrance Test there is no room for such activities. Hence the agents have shifted to engineering courses," Sudhakar, stated.