Degree racket busted in Nanded

Police said that in the course of a raid on Kadam8217;s residence, where they had gone to look for photographs of girls in the nude and Government officials in compromising positions, they stumbled upon a network of youths involved in producing and supplying fake degrees, marksheets and answer sheets belonging to two universities in the region 8212; Swami Ramanand Teerth Marathwada University and Dr BAMU.

Piles of blank answer sheets, marksheets and degrees, along with letter heads of college principals and Government officials, lay scattered in Kadam8217;s house, policesaid.

Documents seized from his house so far, suggest that students, mostly from private engineering colleges in rural areas, were his main clients. But police have also found a number of applications filled in by youths to whom Kadam had allegedly promised jobs.

However, the degree scandal has attracted more attention than the sex racket, with student groups forcing Vice-Chancellor of Dr BAMU, Dr Shivraj Nakade, to set up the Inquiry Committee. The Committee also has Dr Ramdas Ambulgekar, Dr Gangadhar Pathrikar and two other management council members in it.

The Registrar of Dr BAMU, Dr Laxman Nagargoje, who issued a notification on Tuesday about the committee following a management council decision, told The Indian Express that no terms of reference had been given to the Committee, so that its investigations do not remain restricted to an aspect of the scandal. The Committee has to submit its report to the University within 15 days.

Chairman of the committee, Dr Mishra, told The IndianExpress that although the University Committee was no match for a thorough police investigation, he would do his best.

Initial investigations show that Kadam promised people jobs, degrees, question papers in advance of examinations and file clearance, police said.

The Deputy Registrar of the Dr BAMU examination department, Dr M Gumaste, along with Lulekar, have been sent on leave, pending inquiry.

On the other hand, two officials of the rank of Asst Registrar from Dr BAMU, who had access to the seized documents and had been sent to Nanded to make a preliminary assessment, have reported to the University that the two degrees they were shown, were genuine.

However, a detailed investigation will have to be carried out as regards the marksheets and answer sheets, they said.

University officials, however, ruled out a nexus between examination officials and say that the answer sheets could have been produced in a private printing press.

However, police refuse to accept the explanation. Sources inthe police said Kadam had confessed to have met University officials several times, during which he allegedly doled out lakhs of rupees.

University sources also point to the lifestyles led by senior officials in the examination department, adding that people of their income group can barely dream of such luxury.