PEC scam: 3 girls among 6 juveniles get 3-year jail

Ishrat S Banwait
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, November 14

Eight years after the CBI busted an admission scam at Punjab Engineering College, the juvenile court here has sentenced six juveniles, including three girls, to a three-year jail term. They were also directed to pay a fine of Rs 600 each and were granted bail on the spot. The convicts were found guilty under Sections 120B, 420, 467 and 468 of the IPC.

As many as 11 candidates were booked in September 2010 for using forged documents to seek admission under the NRI quota. The five others are still facing a trial in the juvenile court, while the mastermind, along with his accomplices, is facing a trial in the District Courts, Chandigarh.

The mastermind of the scam was Dr Nishikant, a PhD holder in chemistry. He ran a coaching centre and also worked with the CBSE as part of the flying squad once. The CBI had then detected over Rs 1 crore in the savings accounts of Nishikant.

The Hisar-based doctor had supplied fake documents to general category students for Rs 10 to Rs 15 lakh each for securing admission under the Direct Admissions of Students Abroad (DASA) scheme. This scheme is extended to foreign nationals, persons of Indian origin and Indian nationals studying abroad. The 11 students had allegedly obtained admissions on the basis of forged Nepalese identity cards.

Besides other academic qualifications under the scheme, the students have to appear for the Scholastic Aptitude Test – II (SAT-II). A total of 23 institutes in the country, including PEC, offered the scheme at the time. Admissions under the DASA scheme were coordinated by the National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK), Surathkhal. 

Mahinder Bajaj, a resident of Hisar, was also arrested later for having conspired with Nishikant in getting the students admitted to PEC. Of the 11 students arrested then, three were brought to Nishikant by Bajaj and the money that they took from the students was equally shared by the duo. Another accused, Kishore Yadav, was arrested by the CBI in January 2013.