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
This image has been used for representation purpose
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.
ADVERTISEMENT
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.
Also read: Maharashtra govt engineer among 2 held for demanding bride
"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.
This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever.
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
