Amid a spate of certificate forgery cases against former leaders of the Students' Federation of India (SFI), the youth wing of CPI (M) (Communist Party of India (Marxist)), a similar incident involving a Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) leader has come to light, as stated in a report by The New Indian Express.
A report filed by the Kollam Rural district police chief in the Kerala High Court revealed that Samikhan, a DYFI leader from Madathara in Kollam, forged the mark list of NEET (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test).
Samikhan had moved Kerala High Court claiming he was unable to get admission despite scoring good marks in NEET. However, the National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts NEET, had claimed the mark list he produced was forged.
The report filed by the police chief, which was accessed by The New Indian Express, raised suspicion that the student attempted to mislead the court and said the authenticity of the record produced before the HC was to be examined.
Student attempted to mislead the court?
The report said, “in the questioned document, the percentile score obtained, all-India rank for counselling, category rank and total percentile score obtained in the corresponding column are seen as irregular.”
It also said the style and size of the font used were not the same as the ones used in the student's original NEET scorecard uploaded on the National Testing Agency's (NTA) website.
NTA had informed the court that Samikhan obtained 16 out of 720 marks in NEET-2022. However, Samikhan produced another scorecard that said he secured 468 marks. He said he had downloaded the scorecard from an Akshaya Centre at Madathara Junction in Kollam.
The police report said a scrutiny revealed that the application number in the student's NEET admit card was 12 digits (220410402200), while the same in the scorecard he downloaded was 11 digits (22041040220).
“During the verification, it is very clear the student applied for the NEET exam using details mentioned in the admit card. The details are not matching with the specifications in the NEET scorecard produced by him before the High Court,” said the report. It said the police also verified his NEET scorecard from the 2021 examination to ascertain his intention. The NEET-2021 scorecard mentioned his date of birth as “26.04.2002” and application number as 210410536436 – again 12 digits. His marks on the official website was only 24.
Where was the NEET scorecard downloaded from?
The report said there was no evidence substantiating that the NEET scorecard was downloaded from the Akshaya Centre as there was no download history or print history there.
“It is evident from the enquiry that the student himself sent a copy of the NEET scorecard to the WhatsApp number of a person who worked at the Akshaya Centre at Madathara at the time,” said the report, adding that a copy was then taken from the centre.
It said at the time, the man raised doubts over the genuineness of the scorecard citing the font size of the marks, and downloaded Samikhan's original NEET scorecard, which mentioned the marks as 16, and sent it to him via WhatsApp. The report said in this context, the police conclude that the student himself had committed the forgery.
The Chithara police had booked Samikhan and he was arrested on June 27. The police said a probe was underway.
It is a common qualifying final-year MBBS exam, a licentiate exam to practise medicine & for merit-based admission to PG courses and screening exam for foreign medical graduates who want to practise here
