CBI confirms IIM exam fraud

Kochi: It has come to light that the accused in the Common Admission Test (CAT) fraud had tampered with the results of 2010, 2011 and 2012 also and as many as eight students from Kolkata got admission in 2011-12 batch of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM)-Kozhikode.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) made the revelations before the Ernakulam Chief Judicial Magistrate Court on Monday while seeking extension of their custody.

Muhammed Afaq Sheikh received Rs 50 lakh for altering the IIM-K CAT results in October and November, 2012. According to the CBI, marks of 80 students were tampered with.

Others, Muhammed Aslam and Ziagam Abbas, handed over Rs 8 lakh to Afaq at Kozhikode for altering the marks of the eight students.

The court allowed CBI to keep the three in custody for eight more days till May 4. Thee CBI produced the details of chats the trio made via Facebook.

CBI DySP V. Varadarajan made the submissions while seeking custody of the accused for further investigation. Deccan Chronicle broke the scam on June 28, 2013, in these columns.

It was alleged that marks of 80 students were altered when the results of the 2012 CAT were published. The CBI took over the probe in April last year. A case was registered against Web Weavers, a Lucknow-based company contracted to publish the results on the official IIM website.

An FIR was lodged against the company under IPC Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 409 (criminal breach of trust) and Sections of the IT Act, for altering the source code.