KOCHI: A day after Maharaja’s College won praise for performing very well in the National Institutional Ranking Framework, 2023 (NIRF), the lone autonomous government arts and science college in the state had to deal with allegations of fraud and marks fudging. However, what makes the two incidents interesting is that the protagonists are connected.
The first protagonist P M Arsho, the Students Federation of India’s (SFI) state secretary, was accused of alleged mark fudging with the help of the college authorities. When the final result of the Archaeology course was released, Arsho, who hadn’t appeared for the third-semester examination, was seen to have gotten a pass. However, the SFI leader hadn’t appeared for the examination since he was incarcerated at the time.
Arsho was arrested under various sections for attempting to murder a lawyer. He also faces charges in more than 40 criminal incidents, including assault on a student. However, according to the principal, V S Joy, the error crept in due to a software issue.
“The National Informatics Centre’s (NIC) software was unable to identify the entry marked as absent. Hence, it automatically considered the student as having cleared the examination. We notified the same with the NIC officials as soon as the error was realised. The mark list has been updated,” said the principal, who added that the mark list was an interim one issued for the students’ perusal.
Even as the college tackled Arsho’s case, it had to deal with a fake guest lecturer issue. A former student who had passed out from the Malayalam Department of the college allegedly used a fake experience certificate showing that she had worked at the institution as a guest lecturer for two years.
“The ‘guest lecturer’ got busted when she submitted the fake experience certificate to support her candidature for the guest lecturer post at Attapadi Government College,” said sources. The fraud was revealed when the principal, who had worked at Maharaja’s College, scrutinised the documents after the interview process led to a tie between two shortlisted candidates.
“The principal found the experience certificates, which had been printed out on the college’s letterhead and carried the vice principal’s signature, fishy. So she sent a mail to the college seeking clarification,” said the sources. The date on one of the certificates gave her away.“The certificate had been signed on Maundy Thursday, a day when the college remains closed!” said sources.
Before applying for the guest lecturer post at the Attapadi Government College, the ‘guest lecturer’ had worked at two other government colleges. “She would never have been caught if the tie hadn’t happened,” said the sources. Meanwhile, the college has registered a complaint with the Central Police Station. “We filed a complaint as soon as we came to know of the incident,” said Joy.