Three MBBS students have been debarred by the Kerala University of Health Sciences (KUHS), after it was found that impersonators wrote exams for them at the Kollam Azeezia Medical College. The impersonation happened during the final year part one examinations held in January 2021. An internal investigation found that impersonators wrote exams for three students from the 2012 batch. These students who had failed in the subject were reappearing for the exams.
The college got suspicious as in the answer sheets of these students there were variations in the registration serial number. This is when the college and the University decided to probe further and they found that the handwriting did not match with their previous answer sheets.
"We have debarred the students for five years from writing examinations. The University couldn't find how the cheating was done and who the culprits are. Our doubt was strengthened after it was found that there was a huge difference in the marks obtained by the students this time and previous times on the same subject. We also found variations in handwriting," KUHS Pro Vice-Chancellor Dr CP Vijayan told TNM.
However, the University did not find out exactly how the cheating was done and has not filed a police complaint. As per reports, when the question paper appeared just before the examinations it was downloaded and someone else wrote the answers and the answer sheets were placed along with others before sending for invigilation.
"We have directed the college to conduct a detailed internal enquiry, if they cannot do it themselves they will have to approach the police. Till now we haven't filed a complaint with police," Dr Vijayan said.
In a similar case in Tamil Nadu in 2019, impersonations were found during the NEET examination. Investigators arrested 18 persons, including some parents and impersonators, who wrote exams for the NEET candidates. The key accused in the case was Rasheed, a Keralite from Malappuram district. He was an agent who lived in J.P. Nagar, Bengaluru. He would arrange impersonators to write exams for students charging huge sums. There were other brokers too in the chain.
Rasheed surrendered before a court in Theni in January 2021, that he was absconding since 2019.