Maharashtra State Council of Examination commissioner arrested for 'scam' in teachers' eligibility test

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The commissioner of Maharashtra State Council Of Examination (MSCE) and another person have been arrested for allegedly taking money to tamper with results of the Teachers' Eligibility Test (TET) held last year, Pune Police said on Friday.

The malpractices in the TET, held in January 2020, came to light during the probe of paper leak in the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) recruitment examination, said city police commissioner Amitabh Gupta.

MSCE commissioner Tukaram Supe and one Abhishek Sawrikar, an advisor with the education department, were arrested by the cyber cell of city police on Thursday following questioning, he added.

Supe, in connivance with Sawrikar and two others, allegedly took money to change the results of some candidates so that they could clear the test.

The cyber police recovered over Rs 88 lakh in cash, gold jewelry and incriminating documents from Supe's possession, Gupta said.

"During the investigation of MHADA paper leak, we had arrested Pritesh Deshmukh, director of GA Software which was responsible for conducting the exam, and agent Santosh Harkal.

"During the probe, malpractices in the TET came to light," Gupta said.

GA Software was also responsible for conducting the TET.

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"Supe and Sawrikar with the help of Deshmukh and Harkal allegedly received between Rs 35,000 to 1 lakh from each candidate, increased their marks and made them eligible," Gupta said.

As per preliminary estimates, the accused had received over Rs 4 crore from the candidates, the police commissioner said.

A police release claimed that the accused confessed that Supe had received Rs 1.70 crore while Deshmukh and Sawrikar had received Rs 1.25 crore each.

Asked if Pune Police will probe other past examinations where GA Software was involved, Gupta said if anything suspicious was found, police will definitely look into it.

Speaking about the modus operandi allegedly adopted by Supe and others, Gupta said the candidates from whom money was received were asked to keep their

OMR (optical mark recognition) sheets and it was filled with right options just before they were sent for scanning.

The MSEC had issued a notice to GA Software for not adhering to the norms such as producing CCTV footage of OMR sheet scanning, police said.

"GA Software had been also blacklisted but Supe removed the firm from the list," the release claimed.

Supe and Sawrikar were sent in police custody till December 17 by a local court on Friday, it added.

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