10 people have been arrested in Bengaluru The alleged engineering seat obstruction scamPolice said it helped private colleges earn money at the expense of deserving candidates.
Bengaluru city police commissioner B Dayanand announced the arrests on Tuesday (November 3) and said they were trying to nab three more key people.
What is the Admission Process in Private Colleges in Karnataka? And what is the scam?
Private colleges in Karnataka have to fill up 45% of their seats through the ‘government seat quota’, where the annual fee is capped at Rs 76,135. For the other 55% seats, colleges can decide their own fee structure. Candidates are selected through Karnataka Common Entrance Test, commonly known as KCET.
These seats are for various professional courses like Engineering, Bachelor of Pharmacy (BPharma), Diploma in Pharmacy (Dpharma) etc.
To determine the candidate’s rank, 50% weightage is given to their class 12 marks and 50% to the marks obtained by them in KCET. After this, students appear for counseling in three rounds. For this, they are provided online credentials like KCET number and password.
Under the government seat quota, students can apply to at least three colleges and courses in three rounds for admission. At the end of the admission process, if a student chooses a college and is not admitted, the filled seat can be converted into a ‘management’ seat, for which the college may charge a hefty fee. This is based on an MoU between the government and the Karnataka Unaided Private Engineering Colleges Association (KUPECA).
In this way, students selected from the government quota can get ‘management’ seats up to 30 lakhs or more by paying 76 thousand 135 rupees.
The police found that the accused had blocked some government quota seats, denied admission and converted them into management seats until the admission process was completed.
How did the scam come out?
After this year’s round of counselling, the Karnataka government found that 2,625 students were not admitted to their chosen seats despite participating in three rounds of counselling. The Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) issued notices to all 2,625, and many responded saying they were not aware that engineering seats were blocked in their names. Some of these opted for B.Sc courses, some joined medical colleges and some went to IITs.
According to Higher Education Minister MC Sudhakar, there are 92 government seats in BMS College of Engineering, 82 in Akash Institute of Technology, 52 in New Horizon College of Engineering, 45 in Vivekananda Institute of Technology, and 45 in Dayanand Sagar College of Engineering. 34, Sir M Visvesvaraya Institute of Technology (32), and MVJ College of Engineering (31) remained vacant.
It was also revealed that the seats were selected from the same IP address and the mobile numbers provided were fake or wrong.
On November 13, KEA administrator Islauddin J. Gadyal lodged a complaint with the Malleswaram police in Bengaluru.
No private college has yet responded to this issue.
What was revealed in the police investigation?
Police discovered that a virtual private network (VPN) was used to morph IP addresses active in Shivamogga, Goa and other places since January this year.
A police official said, “Our investigation started from the KEA building, as this kind of scam was impossible without any insider help. We picked up Avinash BS, a 36-year-old KEA officer who was looking after the data. It was found that he shared the data with private individuals.
What was the modus operandi?
According to the police, Avinash had the data of students who had appeared in the KCET exam but had not appeared for counselling. He shared their KCET numbers and login passwords with the agents. The agents then blocked some seats posing as students in the online counseling process.
A senior police officer said, “Seats were blocked illegally by taking a bribe of Rs two to three lakh. The group used this fraudulent system to financially benefit private colleges, depriving deserving candidates of their fair opportunities. “
How does seat blocking benefit colleges and agents?
According to the police, the gang operates by identifying rich people who want to enroll their children in prestigious courses and colleges. A police officer said that these seats are sold for between 20 lakh and 40 lakh annually. Agents who bring clients get commission. So, at the time of enrollment, there is a race among agents to bring in the highest paying parent.”
If the accused had not blocked these seats, they could have gone to another student in the merit list.