The university had registered an FIR in recruitment scam

Judicial magistrate (first class) AK Mandavgade on Wednesday remanded the University of Pune's (UoP) section officer from the administration department RH Attar in police custody till Saturday.

Attar, who hails from Sangamner, was arrested by the city police on Tuesday night.

The city police had earlier arrested the university's assistant registrar MS Gaikwad (53) of Sus Road and produced him in the court.

The university had registered a First Information Report (FIR) with the Chatuhshrungi police on Monday in connection with the recruitment examination for class III and class IV non-teaching posts on February 14. The university had suspended Gaikwad and Attar after the latter confessed to committing the irregularity at the behest of Gaikwad.

According to the police, the merit list displayed on the university's website on February 20 showed that the suspect had increased the marks of nine candidates in their written test. Of the nine, three candidates are wards of university employees and the remaining are from Sangamner and Ahmednagar.

Public prosecutor Harichandra Doiphode, while demanding the police custody of Attar, said the police now want to probe how much money was taken from the candidates.

Both the arrested officials are suspected to have taken the merit list from the particular department before making changes in the marks, Doiphode said.

Police sub-inspector SAS Sayed had on Tuesday said that a few other university officials may be involved in the case.

Meanwhile, under pressure from various quarters seeking an explanation, UoP registrar Manik Jadhav, issued a press release on Wednesday stating that he has nothing to do with the class III and IV employee recruitment scam. However, highly placed sources in the university said that two university employees, who are parents of the two candidates of the three whose marks have been increased by section officer HR Attar, were called by the police for questioning. The sources said that assistant section officer Dagdu Vitthal Lokhande and administration department clerk Mahadu Shinde were questioned by the police.

Meanwhile, president of Pune Vidyapeeth Sevak Sangh Vitthal Sathe met university vice-chancellor Narendra Jadhav and asked for the registrar's resignation on moral grounds as he is the head of the administration department.

Prashant Aher & Ashish Jadhav/ DNA-Daily News & Analysis Source: 3D Syndication