Rohit Pawar Seeks Judicial Probe Into Alleged CET Scam
Mr Pawar said a complaint had already been lodged over the alleged CET data leak, but no significant progress in the investigation was visible.
Mumbai: NCP (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar on Tuesday demanded an inquiry under the Commission of Inquiry Act, 1952, into the alleged MH CET engineering admission scam. He proposed that the inquiry be headed by former Supreme Court judge Abhay Oak. Mr Pawar’s demand came after owners of coaching centres and education experts approached him and presented a sting operation that allegedly exposed manipulation of CET percentiles to influence engineering admissions. The state government had earlier constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the alleged scam.
Mr Pawar, grandnephew of NCP founder Sharad Pawar, alleged irregularities in the admission process at the College of Engineering, Pune (COEP), and Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute (VJTI), Mumbai, claiming that the institutions’ rankings had declined over the past few years due to alleged admission-related scams. He also alleged a data leak in the Common Entrance Test (CET) and questioned the progress of the SIT constituted by the state government to investigate the matter.
The NCP (SP) legislator on Tuesday made a detailed PowerPoint presentation (PPT), along with Narayan Shingare, owner of Dyansagar Career Care Cell in Ahilyanagar district, Vivek Dhoke, a career guidance counsellor, and other teachers, before the media at YB Chavan Centre in South Mumbai. In the presentation, Mr Pawar also showed a sting operation conducted at Expertise Education Pvt Ltd in Pune, in which Mr Shingare was purportedly told by Krisha, a manager at the institute, how examination-related irregularities were carried out to facilitate admissions to four leading engineering colleges in Maharashtra.
“The CET examination controversy is extremely serious and warrants an independent judicial inquiry under the Commission of Inquiry Act, 1952. A forensic audit of results, academic correlation of CET scores, investigation into institutions allegedly facilitating manipulation, compromised examination centres and agents, and scrutiny of the tendering process are essential to establish accountability. We also demand that examinations be conducted offline using OMR sheets from this year, as was done earlier,” he said.
Mr Pawar said a complaint had already been lodged over the alleged CET data leak, but no significant progress in the investigation was visible. He expressed suspicion that Eduspark, a company entrusted with examination-related work, could be involved in the alleged data leak.
Alleging irregularities in the allocation of contracts, the NCP (SP) leader claimed that Eduspark had been awarded projects worth Rs 2,300 crore and alleged corruption in the execution and allocation of these projects. He said the company had also undertaken assignments in Bihar and was operating in several parts of the country.
Mr Pawar alleged that the company was first awarded work during Uday Samant’s tenure as minister and subsequently continued to receive contracts during the tenures of Chandrakant Patil, Deepak Kesarkar and, again, Patil.
The NCP (SP) leader demanded accountability for the alleged irregularities and questioned the manner in which contracts were repeatedly awarded to the company.
Mr Shingare claimed that Rs 25 lakh was being quoted to secure admission to an engineering college through manipulation of CET examinations.
“If you want to secure admission to a top college through the CET, I have been asked to pay Rs 25 lakh. There is a person named Subhendu Prabhat who has seven companies. He operates these companies from Lucknow. This company’s institute is in Pune. This person has told me that he is the brother of a Cabinet Minister,” he said.
