HC holds Mishra, students guilty of cheating

NAGPUR: The Nagpur bench of Bombay high court has held Sunil Mishra, one of the prime accused in Nagpur University’s infamous fake marksheet and
revaluation scam and two other beneficiary students guilty of cheating. However, it acquitted kingpin Yadav Kohchade and his accomplice Ashok Jawlekar from all the cases. Scrutinier Madhukar Smarth was acquitted in one case and convicted in another. A single-judge bench of justice Ravindra Chavan quashed all the charges levelled against Mishra, Mahendra Gote and Parag Fadnavis for which they were convicted by the special court of second additional chief judicial magistrate Ashok Gattani last year. The bench provided them further respite by stating that the sentences these accused had undergone so far were sufficient and hence should be set free. While pronouncing verdict in Gote’s case, the court observed that his conviction would eclipse his career as a lawyer. The judge directed the university to return his degree and also asked Nagpur University and Bar Council of Maharashtra to take appropriate steps stating that “cancelling degrees is beyond scope of powers of learned magistrate.” In case of Gote, he failed in seven subjects while appearing in his final year law examination in 1996. He applied for revaluation and managed to pass the examination allegedly in connivance with Kohchade and Smarth using fraudulent means. In case of Fadnavis, a first year engineering student, failed in mathematics during winter 1996 exam. However allegedly conniving with Kohchade and Jawlekar, he managed to clear the subject by tampering marks. According to Kohchade’s counsel Prakash Naidu, this is third acquittal for his client in a week. On Tuesday, the high court had acquitted Kohchade in the case of beneficiary student Anil Gupta, while he was convicted in the case of Laxmikant Zade along with scrutinier Prabhakar Hejib. Their sentences were also reduced from twelve and half years to five and half years. Moreover, former dean of engineering Hemant Thakre, scrutiniers Smarth and Shyam Kalamkar along with beneficiary students Rajendra Yadav, Mohammed Ishaq and Shailesh Tupkari were absolved of all charges by the court. Kohchade would be moving to the Supreme Court against high court verdict.