More corruption in the conduct of Government exams in Maharashtra was unearthed with the Pune police arresting a former commissioner of the Maharashtra State Council of Examination (MSCE) in connection with alleged malpractices in the Teachers' Eligibility Test (TET) held in 2018.
The police took former MSCE commissioner Sukhdev Dere into custody late on Monday after the authorities found proof of his alleged malpractices in the 2018 TET.
Evidence of Mr. Dere’s complicity in the 2018 TET came to light during an ongoing police investigation into the alleged irregularities in the 2020 TET.
The latter scam had led to the arrest of current MSCE commissioner Tukaram Supe along with a number of persons, including the director of a software firm contracted by the State Government for conducting such exams.
“A separate case has been registered against Dere for his alleged involvement in malpractices in the 2018 TET while another person was nabbed from Bengaluru last night. The modus operandi of tampering with the marksheets in order to make candidates eligible is the same as that followed by the other accused arrested in the 2020 TET malpractices case,” said Pune Commissioner of Police Amitabh Gupta.
Thus far, eight people have been arrested in the case, including Mr. Supe and Pritish Deshmukh, director of the software firm which was tasked for conducting a number of State Government exams.
Mr. Supe and Abhishek Savarikar, a consultant to the State Education Department, had been arrested by the Pune police last week for allegedly taking money to change the results of some candidates so that they can clear the 2020 TET.
The police had also recovered unaccounted cash and gold ornaments worth over ₹2 crore from Mr. Supe’s home during a search and seizure operation.
The MSCE is the State’s premier exam conducting body which organises the TET where diploma holders are required to be declared as ‘eligible candidates’ in order to secure jobs in schools and institutions run by the State Government and local self-governing bodies.
According to authorities, the alleged malpractices in the TET were coming to light only now due to the probe into the recent question paper leak before the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) examination.
The MHADA exam had been accordingly postponed by the State Government on December 12 and is now scheduled to be held in mid-January next year.
The arrests are a major source of embarrassment for the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi Government which has been facing heavy criticism from student bodies as well as the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, which has accused the Government of gross inefficiency in conducting examinations by awarding contracts to dubious and blacklisted firms.
