Amid a war of words between the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi partners and the BJP, the Pune Police on Tuesday claimed that the Teachers’ Eligibility Test (TET) scam is close to Rs 5 crore. Two more persons, including former Maharashtra State Council for Education (MSCE) Commissioner Sukhdev Dere and GA technology chief Ashwin Kumar from Bangalore, were arrested on Tuesday.
Dere was the moderator at the time of the TET examination. The MVA partners have alleged that he is linked to the BJP. He served as the commissioner of MSCE before Tukaram Supe took over in 2017. Dere had faced departmental inquiry and action in 2016 when he served as the regional head in Aurangabad. He allegedly appointed school teachers without following due procedure. Supe was arrested last week and the police have seized Rs 2.88 crore worth cash and gold ornaments from his home so far.
The Pune cyber police have registered three separate cases of malpractices in three examinations held by the state department – health department, Maharashtra MHADA and TET.
The links of the MHADA paper leak were found from the accused in the health department paper leak case, and the accused in the TET exam were found from information extracted during the investigation of the MHADA case accused. So far, 24 persons have been arrested in the three cases.
Pune Commissioner of Police Amitabh Gupta said, “Candidates were asked to leave answer sheets blank and the failed candidates were shown they had passed out through online entries. Nearly 500 candidates who failed were shown passed out by declaring false results. They were given false certificates.”