BANGALORE: Candidates with same photographs but different names; over 50 candidates with deliberately smudged photographs to fake identity; a Kanpur candidate's photograph attested by a gazetted officer in Kolkata; a man's photograph attested by a women's college principal.

All these candidates were allegedly trying to use impostors to write the Undergraduate Entrance Test (UGET) conducted on Sunday by the Consortium of Medical, Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (COMED-K) to fill management quota seats.

The COMED-K detected 20 cases, a majority of them in Gulbarga and two in Bangalore. Sixteen candidates were debarred.

Smelling mischief, a red alert was issued to its squads to check on 50 other candidates. "But four of them ran away.

"Twenty cases of impersonation were detected while 12 more were suspected. We obtained confessional statements from the ones who were caught and alerted the police.

"Three independent observer teams were despatched to Gulbarga," COMED-K executive secretary S. Kumar told The Hindu .

The consortium had received 20,890 applications till April 23, the last day specified. But an unusual number of applicants from Jharkand had opted for Gulbarga as their examination centre although Bangalore would have been the natural choice with its ease of transportation and accommodation.

This raised suspicions. "It was considered desirable to make a close scrutiny of such applications, where the genuineness of the candidates was under doubt." The skeletons dropped off the cupboard soon.

In one case, two candidates, Ajay Kumar Singh and Krishna Kumar Sharma, affixed the same photograph, both faint and smudged. Singh had July 1, 1986 as his date of birth while Sharma's birthday was shown as October 20, 1980. But both had similar addresses located in Kadma and Jamshedpur. Their certificates of the proof of identity was attested by the principal, "Gurunanak Girl Degree College."

The findings were stark enough for Dr. Kumar to shoot off letters to the Venkataraman Committee overseeing professional college admissions and to the district police superintendents. "It is obvious from the scrutiny of these applications and grave disparities, which are apparent even by a cursory examination, that the candidates are committing a fraud on the COMED-K test-2005 process," he said.

At least 10 candidates had the same address, apparently located in a STD booth in Kadma, Jamshedpur. The photographs of several candidates were attested by the principals of a cooperative college and a workers' college. The name of Gurunanak Girls College figured in a number of applications.

Most photographs looked like they were deliberately smudged. The examination officials found it intriguing why high-ranking gazetted officers had attested even barely visible photographs.

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