'Digital forgery' mars CU C unit entry test

Amid the allegation of digital forgery in the admission test of Chittagong University (CU) “C” unit under the Faculty of Business Administration, the university authority yesterday postponed the admission test's viva voce exam without mentioning any specific reason.

The notice said CU Vice-Chancellor Prof Iftekhar Uddin Chowdhry had issued a verbal order to postpone the viva voce to be held on November 7, and details will be disclosed later in the university website www.cu.ac.bd. The notice was signed by Dr Jahangir Alam, dean of business faculty, and also the chairman of “C” unit admission test committee 2016-17.

The aspirants who appeared at the Monday's C3 (science group) unit entry test, alleged the answers to the questions were already given. Scrutinising the question papers, it was found that each question had five answers (A to E) to choose from, and one of the letters next to an answer was slightly blurred.

Most of the students could not initially trace the blurred letters, but after the exam they found that all the question papers had the similar blurred letters next to the answers, they said.

This correspondent spoke to at least three dozens' admission seekers since Tuesday who alleged the same. The students claimed that the forgery was allegedly committed by a fraud gang in assistance with the officials involved in the question formulation process.

“I couldn't trace the anomaly during the exam, but afterwards I noticed all the correct answers were slightly blurred,” said examinee Himel Barua, hailing from Khulna.

Another examinee, Gias Uddin said, “We study hard to get admitted to the public universities, but with this kind of forgery facilities, the unscrupulous quarter will grab the posts.”

After the results were published Tuesday, it was seen that the applicant who became first got 118.99 out of 120. Also, around 15 students got over 110.

While the first place holders in C2 unit (arts and humanities) and C1 unit (business studies) got 82.2 and 101 respectively.

Contacted, Dr Jahangir Alam, dean of business faculty, said, he was not involved with the admission test question formulation committee as his son was a candidate. “My son only got 16,” he said, “How could he fail if I had known about the answers?”

He said Prof Ahmed Salahuddin was in the committee and told this correspondent to contact him. “If such forgery took place, we will take measures after an investigation,” said Prof Salauddin, of accounting department.

“We have not received any written complaint yet,” said VC Iftekhar Uddin Chowdhury. “If any anomalies were found in the question paper, stern actions will be taken.”

Meanwhile, protesting the alleged forgery, students under the banner of Pragatishil Chhatra Jote yesterday held a human-chain in front of the CU Central Shaheed Minar, where they urged the authorities concerned to retake the exam.