SRCC boy held for Ramjas admission scam

NEW DELHI: A second-year SRCC student is among four persons arrested for their alleged role in the Ramjas College admission scam, opening the possibility that similar rackets had taken place other colleges of Delhi University.

The student, Sahil Gulati, was in BCom (H) at SRCC, a most sought-after course in DU. He was erroneously identified as a Ramjas student in TOI's report on December 12. The others arrested are Mukul, a 2nd-year Ramjas student, Sanchit, an ex-Ramjas student and Rahul, owner of a cyber cafe where marksheets were forged.

Police have expanded their probe beyond Ramjas College after the arrest of a second-year SRCC student in the fake marksheet scam. But what's shocking is that the racket was actually fuelled by unreasonably high cut-offs coupled with cut-throat competition to get into top colleges.

Students who sought admission through dubious means had manipulated their marks just to match the cut-offs. "Most students who walked into the trap did not have low percentages. Rather, they were good students who just wanted to make it to the best colleges, but were not in the cut-off bracket by a small margin. They wanted to raise their marks by 10-12 % to get the cutting edge," said a police officer.

The accused students have been sent to judicial custody after being charged with cheating and forgery by the Maurice Nagar police. A cyber cafe near North Campus was where the scam laboratory. Here forms, certificates and marksheets of student seeking admission in Ramjas and other colleges were brought first.

Most students have been found to be in the B.Com and B.A (Economics) stream. Now, police are probing if staff from these departments had any role in assisting admission or it was the admission department playing a role behind the scene.

Officials said a large number of students who got admission were from Paschim Vihar locality of West Delhi, who are now being questioned on their role in the racket.

Police suspect that Mukul, Sahil and other gang members were operating the racket since the last admission season. Five dubious admissions to Ramjas were detected in 2010-2011 session, but no FIRs were lodged. Delhi Police unearthed the racket after the principal of Ramjas, Dr Rajender Prasad, forwarded complaints to police in October this year.