It's a racket bigger than the revaluation scam, involves larger sums of money, and begs to be investigated into by the police who could have access to the relevant records.

A student who passed, or even failed, the first year examination of a diploma course in engineering, for example, could get admitted directly to second year BE.

For this, the student would not only require a marklist showing that he cleared the first year BE examination, but also a back-dated enrollment number to show that he's registered with this university.

The Chairman of the university's fact-finding committee, A K De, had candidly admitted that there were enough loopholes in the administration for just about anyone to get a fake marklist. According to him, there was no system in place to maintain arecord of the number of blank marklist and degree formats in the university office at any given point in time.

University employees and the agents working outside on their behalf gleefully exploited this mis-administration to make a fast buck.

Not to be left behind, some engineering colleges identified a splendid opportunity here to add to their coffers. Admissions to the first year BE course are rather strictly monitored not only by the university but also by the State government's directorate of technical education.

The competition is so tough that even aspiring students and their parents are on the vigil to ensure that irregular admissions are not made. Even then, every year there are reports of colleges having admitted students in excess of their admission capacity.

A few years back, the Manoharbhai Institute of Engineering and Technology (MIET), Gondia, had been fined a hefty amount by the then Vice Chancellor, Moreshwar Gabhe, for making excess admissions.

This year, Yashwantrao Chavan Collegeof Engineering (YCCE), was caught trying to sneak in more students in the first year than it was authorised to admit. YCCE's Vice Principal and Dean of Engineering Faculty, Hemant Thakre, was arrested by the police for his alleged involvement in the racket.

Interestingly, Thakre was a member of the fact-finding committee and A K De, who works for the same management that runs MIET, Gondia, was it's chairman.

According to sources, instead of facing the hassles involved in giving excess admissions to the first year course, some colleges have gone in for the easier option of making illegal admissions directly to the second or third year.

The deal offered by the private engineering colleges for a seat in the second or third year starts at about Rs five lakh. The student gets not only a first year marklist but also a back-dated enrollment.

Every year, the number of enrollment forms consumed are far less than the number printed by the university. So, forms of past years are readily available to theracketeers among the employees.

A blank enrollment form of the year 1995-96, procured by The Indian Express, bears the series NU/F/... Logically, the series for 1996-97 would be NU/G/..., that for 1997-98 NU/H..., that for 1998-99 NU/I and that for 1999-2000 NU/J... But another blank form with this newspaper, for the year 1999-2000 goes with the series NU/I...

This adds strength to suspicions that fake enrollment forms too are in the market.

Most of the `customers' in this market are students from other states who have wealthy fathers and want an engineering degree by any means.