College exam ghost-writing racket busted

The Social Security Cell of the city police, with the help of officials from the Cantonment police station, on Tuesday claimed to have busted a racket wherein bright students were sent to write examinations in place of those supposed to appear for the papers in reputable colleges in the city.

Acting on tip-off
The incident came to light after sleuths from the Social Security Cell received a information that a 23-year-old youth was answering a question paper under the name of a first year BCom student in Poona College.

In the dock: Gaus Shabbir Shaikh, who the police said was the racket mastermind and had a list of bright students for use as proxy candidates

"On Tuesday, we received a tip-off that one Farid Parvez Sayyad (23), a resident of Kondhwa, was solving the FYBcom Cost and Work Accounting paper for a bona fide student, Karvan Ahmed Sohail, in Poona College," said Police Inspector Bhanu Pratap Barge of the Social Security Cell. "We immediately rushed to the college and stormed into the classroom where Sayyad was writing the paper under Sohail's hall ticket. The former's photo was pasted, however, the name on the hall ticket was that of Sohail."

He said that Sayyad was immediately taken into custody and during sustained interrogations, he spilled the beans and revealed that he was sent by one Gaus Shabbir Shaikh. He further stated that to write one paper, he was supposed to get Rs 5,000 from Shaikh.

A team from the Cantonment police and Social Cell then traced Shaikh and during his grilling, he revealed that he has been involved in this racket since two years, and has been supplying brilliant students to various colleges by charging students wanting his services anything between Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 per paper.

Forged hall tickets
During a search conducted at Shaikh's house and car, police recovered various certificates of various colleges, mark sheets, forged hall tickets, photographs of some proxy candidates, and 14 mobile handsets.

Police stated that Shaikh is a resident of Modikhana in Cantonment area and is the main operator in the racket. Cops suspect that some staff from the college might be involved and their role is under the scanner.
Shaikh is believed to be in contact with 15 to 20 bright students who used to appear as proxy candidates.
It is suspected that Shaikh was depending on word of mouth publicity to get students into the racket.

During his questioning, Shaikh said that so far he has managed to send such bogus candidates to Poona College, Ness Wadia and Nowrosjee Wadia Colleges and used to give them Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000 after the work was done.

"The incident clearly indicates that there is some nexus between some staff from the colleges and operators of this racket. Without the help of the college staff, it can not be possible," said Barge.

Foreign students
Shaikh revealed that several times foreign students of these colleges used to approach him, and subsequently he has made Indian students appear for the examination for them, charging them exorbitantly.

The Social Security Cell has appealed the colleges to adopt a stringent verification procedure during the examination to curb such illegal activities in the colleges.

The team that busted the racket, include police inspector Sushma Chavan of the Cantonment police station, PI Nitin jadahv, PSI Ashwinin Jagtap , constable Rakesh Boyne, Sachin Kokre, Dipak Jade, Damyanti Jagdale and Vaishali Jadhav. u00a0