Ashutosh College in south Calcutta has alerted police about an alleged data theft from the Centralised Admission Portal run by the higher education department.
The college claimed that unknown people, suspected of having obtained the data, were calling up candidates and offering them seats in exchange for money.
The allegations come at a time undergraduate admissions began through the centralised portal after months of delay over a legal tangle on a revised OBC list published by the state government.
The college authorities told this newspaper that they had lodged a complaint with the Bhowanipore police station as well as the cyber cell of Kolkata Police.
Kolkata Police’s joint commissioner (crime) Rupesh Kumar said an inquiry had been launched.
In his complaint, college principal Manas Kabi wrote: “I have received several complaints from some students of our college that some unknown individual/s with unscrupulous intentions is/are calling up the new applicants who are waiting for admission through the Central Admission Portal to Semester-I of the new academic session, offering them admission to subjects of their choice in exchange of substantial cash donation in our college.”
Kabi said he requested the police to come to the college and alerted them about the complaints regarding the cash-for-seat calls. “I have also sent an email to the cybercrime cell of the police. The higher education department has also been informed,” he added.
Apart from lodging a formal complaint, the college has posted a notice on its Facebook page alerting students and guardians against such malpractices.
The notice says: “This is to inform all concerned that we received some complaints regarding some unknown individuals who are calling up the new applicants, waiting for admission in our college, and offering subjects of their choice against substantial cash donation under ‘so-called management quota’.”
The notice added: “This is to categorically state that we have nothing called admission under ‘management quota’ in our college, and we have initiated legal action against the culprits who are involved in a conspiracy to malign the name of our more than a 100-year-old institution of immense repute.”
Kabi said new applicants and their guardians had been requested to inform the college through email if they received or had already received any such calls.
An official of the state education department said they were awaiting the outcome of the police probe. “We would also like to know how and at what level the information of the prospective students was stolen,” an official told The Telegraph.
Admission to undergraduate courses in government and aided colleges through the centralised portal began on August 22, over a month-and-a-half behind schedule.
The process resumed after the Supreme Court stayed a Calcutta High Court order on OBC reservations, clearing the legal block on college admissions.
The first merit list was published within hours of the stay order. Classes for students whose names featured on the first merit list started on August 29.