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When asked whether the modus operandi used was the same as in the present Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS) case, Prof Kumar said.” I cannot comment on those who you are referring to without knowing further details.”
Prof Himanshu Rai explained that the CAT exam has a strong inbuilt mechanism which ensures that matters are taken care of on the spot. “Bio-metric testing ensures that the banned people can never ever take CAT so that solves a big part of the problem as those people cannot attempt the exam every again.”
Meanwhile in the NMIMS case
The Mumbai police are in the process of interrogating more than 100 ‘benefactors.’ Of these, 87 are from this year’s batch while 22-25 are from the 2012 batch.
Confessions
Most confessions are taking place in the presence of their parents. According to police sources, this procedure is being carried out for two reasons. One, to make sure that the youngsters (almost all in their 20s) are telling the truth and second, to know whether the parents funded the clandestine transaction. It was ironic to note that in every case, the parents were in the know-how of things and even supported their wards. “It is a lot of money; where else will these young people get the money from. Of course parents knew, though most of them are telling us that they thought they were paying for a management seat.” The police are not certain whether the children lied to their parents or the agents lied to the students, marketing it as a ‘management seat’ proposal.
Though logically, most of the exam-takers picked by the agents are from well-heeled families, in one or two cases, the story is quite sad. One person sold off quite a few home possessions to gather the amount while another took loans from many people. It’s these people, who are really feeling the pinch now, say the police. It was clear during discussions that for the parents, the NMIMS exam is a very tough one and they were doing their bit to make it easy for their children. The discussion rarely ventured into ethical grounds. All parents said a ‘management seat’ is legal and if one can afford it, no harm.
When students were interrogated, they all maintained that finally one does an MBA or a similar course only to get a job, not many do it for the love of studying for it. “Some people bribe to get a job, some use influence to get one. We paid up for a similar goal,” is how most candidates/students described their action.
The Syndicate
The money that a candidate had to give an agent was Rs 10-15 lakhs, depending on the paying capacity of the former and the intellectual capability of the latter. Half the amount had to be paid before the exam and the rest after receiving the interview call.
This total amount was then divided between different people involved in that one ‘deal.’ The agent would get Rs 1-2 lakhs, the exam-writer, a similar amount and if there was a bookie involved to head the deal, he would also get a similar amount. The rest of the chunk would be pocketed by the mastermind of this syndicate who is one Mr Bansal and based in Ghaziabad. This person almost single-handedly runs the all-India operations which may easily number to 7-8 people in every centre that the exam is held.
Funnily, the exam-writer is called a jockey by the police. When asked why, the police official said that like in horse-racing much depends on the horse rider, here took the jockey plays the most crucial role. Police sources add that the lone jockey arrested so far Alok Kumar is a very intelligent young man. A B.Tech, it is reported that he nursed dreams of opening his own coaching centre.
Police sources further add that some of the others involved in the syndicate include lecturers, though it could not be confirmed whether they teach in a management institutes or only coaching classes. Though NMIMS’ headquarters are in Mumbai, the racket is more pronounced in places like Delhi, Ghaziabad, and Bihar etc.
Those arrested so far (and already out on bail) have informed the police that all those in the syndicate are either employed elsewhere or have their own ventures. Some run small businesses, some work at different places, some are with coaching centers and only a handful are doing as badly as earning something like Rs 3 lakhs per annum. But the impostors racket is a cyclical venture, which takes up only some months in a year, so it does not come in the way of other businesses.
How does it start?
This syndicate has been in operation since three years now. Its members begin work around the time when coaching starts. Bookies start identifying likely candidates. Lists of exam-takers are sought from various avenues including coaching centres and random calls, SMS or emails sent in the pretext of coaching. Agents do the field work of hanging outside coaching centres and entering into live discussions with candidates. From there, the rest of the work is done through emails or phone calls. The emails exchange between the arrested impostors and students are a big source of information for Cyber Cell, Mumbai, which is using them to trace the root of this surreptitious business. The Cyber Cell also comes into the picture since NMAT is an online examination. Police tells us that just to make it look authentic, jockeys are known to have taken all the three attempts at the exam, doing better in each attempt. It got little complicated when there are women involved since the jockeys are all male. In that case, according to the police, the jockey fixed on the closest unisex name (the one that matched the real candidate) and made a fake photo identity card. Even fake Aadhaar cards have been used in the NMIMS, what more?
NMIMS says
The institute’s official says that whatever progress happening on the case is at the police end only. “We are in touch with the police and we will decide after the investigation.” When asked whether NMIMS is considering parting ways with Pearson VUE India post the incident, the official said there are no thoughts on those lines as of now. “You can’t blame Pearson if people come with names that match the ones on our list.”
On whether bio-metrics would be introduced, the official said that the testing happens only after the person enters the examination room, not before. “Here we are talking of a larger fraud.”
This is a response that just came in from Prof SSS Kumar: “Let me be very clear – the case pertains to a student who registered twice with a slightly different name and took the test twice using different identity documents. As per CAT rules a student can appear in CAT only once. This candidate was caught using biometrics and his result withheld and is summarily barred from taking CAT in the future. During the pre-testing phase – we identified around 100 students trying to register multiple times and the multiple registrations were cancelled. Based on the reports from test centres I am sure that only students with valid documents are permitted to take the test. Due to lack of proper documents a sizable number of students were not permitted to take the test.“