THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala University (KU) will scrutinise the final year degree mark lists of University College stabbing case accused R Sivarenjith and AN Naseem to determine whether they had committed any malpractice in the examination. Addressing a press conference at the syndicate meeting hall, VP Mahadevan Pillai, Vice-Chancellor, KU, said the scrutiny will take place under an internal inquiry committee by Syndicate member KB Manoj.
“The answer sheets of final year degree examinations will also be handed over to the Crime Branch investigation team if needed. For this, the varsity will retain the answer sheets from 2016. Normally, the answer sheets stored in varsity are destroyed every two years because of space constraints,” said Pillai. He pointed out that the university had already initiated measures to determine whether these students had committed any kind of fraud to succeed in the final year degree examinations that were held in 2016.
“We will verify their mark lists in the semester examinations. The difference in marks in various semesters secured by the accused will be checked. If proved guilty, their degrees will be cancelled. “Besides, we have also decided to debar these students from studying any course under the varsity in the future and their PG registration has also been cancelled,” Pillai made it clear.
However, the vice-chancellor also added that the university will not probe into the missing answer sheets as it was the responsibility of University College to keep the answer scripts safe and secure. “Our priority is to check the mark lists of the accused who wrote the examination in 2016. The university has already taken action against them. “But it’s the responsibility of the college to keep answer sheets given by us safe,” said Pillai.