Acting on this recent complaint of the institute, a Joint Team of Crime Branch and Cyber Cell of Mumbai police have arrested 6 persons involved in the organised crime from different locations including Delhi, UP & Pune, Police said.
“Some incriminating and forged documents like ID cards, Aadhar Card, Pan Card, Election Card in the name of students for appearing as dummy have been found,” the police said, adding, “efforts are in progress to trace the other accused persons and establish links between them.”
Terming the whole episode as an unfortunate chapter, NMIMS Vice-Chancellor Dr Rajan Saxena said, “NMIMS has taken the action because we believe it is the responsibility of a leading academic institution like NMIMS to develop the character and morality of young graduates.“
“SVKM’s NMIMS stands for ethics, morality and integrity in behaviour. Industry and our other stakeholders acknowledge NMIMS for its value system, and also trust NMIMS for its integrity,” he said, adding, “It is unfortunate when some individuals try unethical means to forge their admission. NMIMS condemn all such attempts and shall not rest contended as long as even a single individual tries unfair means to graduate.”
According to the Mumbai police officials, the accused candidates had spent an amount as high as Rs 15 lakh to secure admission to the institute by illegal means.
NMIMS admission office had lodged a police complaint with Joint Commissioner of Police, Mumbai regarding impersonation cases observed during NMAT 2013. According to the institute, the discrepancies in the identity of some of the finally selected candidates were noticed when they appeared for admission with their original documents and photographes. Their photograph presented during the Personal Interview were not matching to those documented with the admission office during their written admission test - NMAT.
“During the final admission process, admission department discovered discrepancy between the photograph taken at the time of writing the NMAT and the photographs on the Personal Interview application form of a few students,” said the NMIMS admission office, adding, ”A thorough analysis showed that there are about 87 candidates in the final merit list who had impersonated and committed forgery in securing admission.“
The research also found that there were at least 6 individuals who had impersonated for as many as 87 or more students across the country, it added.
NMIMS conducts an annual all India based Entrance Test – NMAT, for admission to its different MBA programmes. This year, around 69,000 candidates took NMAT for 600 seats in MBA programmes. The written test was conducted from 11th October, 2012 to 19th December, 2012. All the candidates had to show primary photo ID proof document at the test centre where their photograph was also captured. They were also required to submit secondary ID proof of address and signature. Thereafter, they were required to sign electronically.
A total of 2,500 candidates based on their NMAT performance were shortlisted for Case Discussion and Personal Interview. At this stage, each student was required to fill a form and affix his/her photograph. The first merit list of selected candidates was subsequently declared on 5th March, 2013 and candidates were offered admissions.
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