Caught on camera: cheating in exam

The students could thus confidently keep the pre-written supplements on their desks and comfortably copy from them, thereby ensuring that they did not attract the supervisors8217; attention.

The booklets had evidently been shipped out of the college at some point prior to the exam, the ploy being to take them home and write down answers to the most-likely questions theyexpected to confront in the next day8217;s paper.

As part of the evidence, this reporter obtained one such pre-written supplement from the college campus before the exam and later handed it over to the minister for investigation.

After receiving a complaint about mass copying at Siddharth College of Arts and Science Buddha Bhavan, the minister asked this Newsline reporter on Wednesday night to discreetly verify the claim.

According to the plan, this reporter went incognito8217;, posing as a student in place of an absentee candidate, and Deshmukh later descended on the college along with Joint Director of Higher Education, R R Pardeshi and other officials from the Education Department.

When the bell rang at 11 am, this reporter took the seat of an absentee candidate in the examination hall, pretending to take the exam. For the first 45 minutes, nothing was amiss 8211; till the supervisor turned up asking for the hall ticket.

When the supervisor was told that the hall ticket was at home, the authoritieswent into a huddle and finally decided to ask for a written undertaking stating that it would be produced on Friday. However, a perusal of earlier exam records showed that this reporter8217;s name did not match with the genuine candidate8217;s name.

The game was up, but the raid had only just begun.

To the horror of the students and the supervisor, the minister, accompanied by officials of the Education Department and Bharatiya Janta Yuva Morcha student leader Vineet Kanchan, burst into the examination hall on the second floor along with a press photographer at precisely 12.20 pm.

As flashbulbs popped and the minister strode in, the students and supervisor froze in horror. Deshmukh walked up to the desk of one shivering student and frisked him for incriminating evidence. Chits of paper with answers on them emerged. Deshmukh then approached the gaping supervisor and along with the officials made straight for the college office.

The Siddharth College officials appeared flummoxed, at a loss to explain how theuniversity supplements had been sneaked out of the college premises. Said the perplexed supervisor: 8220;During the last 30 minutes, the students perhaps demand many extra supplements from the invigilators and somehow manage to sneak them outside.8221; That is all he could come up with by way of an explanation.

The college principal, Dr S S Dhaktode, was tight-lipped and unwilling to comment. 8220;There are around 450 TYBCom students appearing for the exams at my centre and at least I am not aware of any cheating taking place here,8221; he said, in reply to a member of the raiding team, Vineet Kanchan.

After the examination concluded, some of the students casually told Express Newsline that the copying today was not as rampant as it has been in the previous two exams, when candidates freely exchanged notes in class. 8220;This mainly happens because our supervisors are not full-fledged professors as in other stricter colleges. However, such mild cheating happens in every other college,8221; said one studentnonchalantly.

Deshmukh has now decided to open a complaint cell8217; in Mantralaya to tackle such problems. He will also ask the university vice-chancellor to devise a way to stop the pilferage of university supplements.

8220;It is indeed surprising that university answer booklets are freely available. College authorities did not bother to keep a proper count of how many supplements were distributed to candidates,8221; Deshmukh later told Express Newsline.

According to the University of Mumbai Ordinance 220, a candidate can be debarred for a minimum one term if caught with copying material. Action can also be taken against invigilators/supervisors if it is proved that they aided students to indulge in malpractices.

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