Malleswaram police arrest 10 people in CET seat blocking scam

BENGALURU: The Malleshwaram police have arrested a notorious gang of 10 people, who were involved in a CET seat-blocking scam in prestigious colleges. The arrested include Harsha, Prakash, Ravi Shankar, Puneeth, Shashikumar, Purushottam and Avinash.

The gang targeted students who did not attend counseling at the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) and selected a college. In this way, 2,625 students had rejected seats for various reasons. The gang would block the seats of students who had secured government quota seats, but later dropped them.

The scam, which involved blocking seats and selling them to others, was carried out with the help of some college management and agents. The accused would block the seats with the help of a KEA employee, Avinash, who would provide them with passwords.

Prakash, one of the accused had destroyed evidence, including a laptop, on his land in Kadur when he came to know that a complaint had been filed. The police have seized several mobile phones and the burnt laptop pieces. Further investigation is under way.