The University of Madras has suspended three officials and withheld employment benefits of two retired staff, all associated with its Institute of Distance Education (IDE), after an in-house inquiry found evidence of their alleged involvement in an online exam scam unearthed last year.
According to sources, Tamilvanan (Assistant Registrar), Ezhilarasi (Assistant Section Officer), John Weslyn (Attender), N Mohankumar (Retired Assistant Registrar) and Santhakumar (Retired Section Officer) had allegedly helped 116 students, who were not enrolled in any course in the university, to write final-year exams for various degree programmes by using fake serial numbers generated by just paying exam fee. Most of the candidates wrote and cleared all the papers in a single attempt and they were also given fake course completion certificates, sources said.
The employees had allegedly taken advantage of the opportunity given by the university to allow students to write their exams online due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 to game the system. The university had also allowed students enrolled for degree courses since 1980-81 to write their arrear exams online. Students were allowed to write their exams without any supervision from home and post or deposit their answer sheets later.
According to sources, the scam came to light when the students approached IDE last November for their degree certificates. The university found no records of admission of these students and they had not even paid their tuition fee. The university later withheld their exam results and ordered a probe.
The university syndicate formed an in-house panel headed by C Chokkalingam, Director of Legal Studies; B Venugopal, Head of the Legal Studies Department; Chitti Annapurna, Head of the Hindi Department; D Sathiyavan, Head of the Department of Econometrics and V Elangovan, Dean (Academics), in January to probe the issue.
VC received probe report last week
The committee, which verified records and documents and questioned IDE officials and staff members dealing with admissions, finance and examination sections, unearthed the modus operandi and money earned through the scam, sources said. The committee submitted its probe report to Vice-Chancellor S Gowri last week.
“The officials will be asked to submit their response to the allegations levelled against them. On the basis of their reply, further course of action will be decided,” the VC said. “The university also suspects the role of outsiders. Things will be clear after getting the replies from those named in the scam,” another official said. When asked if the university will file a police complaint in the matter, the VC said the decision will be taken by the syndicate.
