Assam police have arrested eight persons in connection with the cash-for-marks scam that has rocked Gauhati University (GU), the oldest university in the region.

Chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma revealed the scam during a visit to Barpeta on Friday. The developments come amid the outrage over the NEET-UG paper leak case leading to arrests in several states.

The scam came to light during the investigation of the discrepancies in the original marksheets of a student from Ganesh Lal Choudhury College at Barpeta Road in lower Assam in May.

“Those responsible for operating the computer system dealing with marksheets at Gauhati University take money from students to increase their marks. Six cases have come to light in Barpeta. The prime accused in the case has been nabbed,” Sarma had said on Friday.

“The Barpeta police and the state CID are probing the case. The Barpeta case has been analysed under my watch for the past seven days. It is being probed thoroughly. Six more cases have come to light till now,” he said.

The arrests were made from four districts — Barpeta, Dhubri, Kamrup (Metro) and Nagaon — sources said.

Those arrested have been identified as K. Krishnamurthy, Ismail Hussain, Alamgir Khan, Moinul Haque, Abul Baser, Aminul Islam (Kalgachia), Hamezuddin (Nagaon) and Shivtosh Mahato (Dhubri).

Krishnamurthy represented ITI Limited and was heading the Integrated University Management System (IUMS) team at the university through which the tampering of marks allegedly occurred. He hails from Uttar Pradesh, according to a university official. The ITI Limited-IUMS also has four other support staff at the university.

Mahato is a junior computer assistant with the Dhubri Law College and Aminul Islam is a librarian of Langla College in Kalgachia, about 15km from Barpeta.

The college lodged a complaint with the police over the discrepancies in the marksheet of student Azizul Haque, which displayed inflated marks when compared with the marks he actually obtained.

The student told the college authorities that he had allegedly paid ₹10,000 to get his marks changed in the first, third, fourth and fifth semesters, according to a college staffer.

A police official told The Telegraph that of the nine accused, only eight have been arrested till now. “Azizul has been booked but has not been arrested yet since he is cooperating till now,” the official said.

A GU official said an internal inquiry has been initiated already started and they have secured all IUMS data and shared it with the police. He also said no employee/official was arrested in this connection.

“The person arrested is the one heading the IUMS system. Hailing from Uttar Pradesh, he is engaged by ITI Limited, a central government undertaking operating the IUMS for GU. The login IDs of the arrested person and four other ITI Limited employees have also been blocked. Krishnamurthy was first questioned by the police on June 26,” he said.

GU authorities and a student leader have called for a thorough probe to set the system right.

The IUMS is the heart of the digital-GU initiative, handling all major functions of the administration, including admission, examination, re-evaluation of answer scripts, finance, storage, grievance management, student database and alumni database. They are all managed through the IUMS, according to the GU website.

Gauhati University signed an MoU with ITI Limited to maintain the IUMS for five years in 2017. “Their extension ends this year,” he said.

The scale of the tampered marksheet scam will become clear once the interrogation of the accused is over.