12 held for engineering exam malpractice

The seized answer-sheets allegedly belonged to various colleges affiliated to examination branch of the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU) here, police said.

"The gang indulged in malpractice of writing exams by illegally getting sealed bundles of BTech answer-sheets and tampered them while they were being transported from various constituent colleges to JNTU examination branch in Kukatpally", Deputy Commissioner of Police (East Zone) Jaya Laxmi told reporters.

A total of nine bundles of sealed answer-sheets of various colleges were seized when they were being transported from Champapet here, besides 68 loose answer-sheets from the possession of the accused while they were rewriting them, she said.

"Prime accused M Venkatesh, working as book-keeper in an engineering college, befriended one Balu Mahender, the driver in Mail Motor Service at Postal department, and would collect BTech answer booklets from him which he in turn supplied to failed/supplementary students through his agents by collecting a sum ranging between Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 per paper for re-writing/tampering," she said.

Mahender who collected the answer-sheet bundles after exams from the various engineering colleges was supposed to deposit them at JNTU Examination branch, however, he illegally handed them over to Venkatesh, Jaya Laxmi said.

The officer said the students who entered into the "deal" with the accused used to leave blank papers in the answer-sheets during exams to enable them to later fill it with correct answers. (MORE)