Imposters are making hay by taking entrance tests to leading institutions, writes ATUl CHATTERJEE
Impostors taking examinations are detected regularly in India. However, the penalties are light and, at times, the culprits are let off without a police report against them or the candidate they were ‘representing’. In mid-2013 the Crime Branch of Mumbai arrested impostors who had taken the entrance examination at the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies. The candidates they ‘represented’ had already been admitted for the 2011-2013 academic session.
In this connection, Mumbai Police held Vikas Bansal of Ghaziabad who operates counseling and coaching centres under the brand of Eduvision. The then Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Himanshu Roy (Mumbai) reportedly said that Bansal, an engineer and an alumnus of Xavier labour Relations Institute, Jamshedpur, was the mastermind. Subsequently, not much has been heard of curbing this menace even though police officers were then reported to have said that they suspected of that the racket had been operating since 2008.
An imposter is paid between one to one-and-a-half lakh rupees for a single exam that lasts a few hours. His or her travel and lodging costs are also reimbursed. The candidates for Narsee Monjee paid more than Rs 10 lakh for impostors who are usually graduates from the IITs and IIMs. The modus operandi to facilitate the substitution starts with a ‘mix up' of the photographs of the imposter and the candidate.
Usually, the upper part of the imposter’s face is merged with the lower part of the candidate’s, their complexions are matched and a composite photo prepared using graphics software. When officials at the examination centre look at the photograph, they search for similarities and find them. Sometimes spectacles are worn to further distract from the real features. The signature is scribbled and simple to copy.
This plan becomes hard to work when a photograph of the candidate is taken at the examination centre. For some examinations, if the agency finds a pliable centre chief, it even manipulates the computer system to allow for a favourable seating arrangement. A number of impostors sit securely in one room, with only the flying squad to fear.
Several institutes take the candidates' photograph at the examination centre. This led to the detection of imposters — though delayed in the Narsee Monjee case, as some of the fraudulently admitted students had already graduated. Though the photographs were taken, they had not been matched with the candidates’, till the police did it. The Common Admission Test for the IIMs also requires a photo of the candidate to be taken at the centre, but one wonders if the photographs are systematically verified.
Considering that an impostor gets a minimum of one lakh rupees per exam (higher for medical college examinAtions), he or she can earn Rs 36 lakh a year, working 36 Sundays (there are different examinAtions held the year round). A fresh IIM Ahmedabad graduate will get a job that pays between Rs 14 lakh to Rs 20 lakh per annum. So in the short-term, this racket is better paying, as it involves un-taxed weekend work.
In one case, the bail was set at less than two lakh rupees for each impostor arrested, which was trivial compared to their earnings. The candidates have been penalised by expulsion or their degrees have been rescinded and cases filed against them. Assuming this racket is run by a network of agencies, and not just Bansal alone, it should be possible to track down other imposters. Unfortunately, law and order is a State subject, so police get hampered in pan-India investigations. Another way of tracking these agents is through payments which are done through banks, as Income and Service Tax laws are also being violated.
The total intake for a regular MBA at Narsee Monjee is around 360 students. In the 2011-2013 class, sources said, 20 of the 22 of admitted students used impostors. In the 2012-2014 batch, the institute expelled 46 students, in the 2013-2015 batch 61 impostors were detected. Recently 125 impostors were arrested in the Pre-Medical Test for medical seats in Madhya Pradesh.
The Narsee Monjee management is quite strict about how it conducts the entrance examination, compared, for example, to a bank probationary officer's exam. Yet as many as 60 competent impostors were caught. It should be much easier to find impostors for bank clerical and other examinations.
It is possible to curb this malpractice through systemic means. It has increased with multiple choice questions in most tests. Earlier a handwriting match could have been performed (not that it was done). So, a sample of handwriting should be taken at various stages: Filling the form, test, interview, admission. While it may be for the police to crack down on this malpractice, but the primary responsibility remains with the educational authorities to devise robust examining systems.