BENGALURU: The Karnataka Consortium of Medical, Engineering and Dental Colleges (ComedK), which conducts the ComedK UG Entrance Test (UGET), has barred 36 students from the counseling process on suspicion of malpractice.ComedK UGET, which holds the key to 32,670 engineering seats in private engineering colleges in Karnataka, was held on May 9 in 400 centers across 280 cities. Around 1,10,774 candidates (36,954 Karnataka and 73,820 non-Karnataka) appeared in the computer-based test conducted in two sessions. The percentage scores of the candidates were taken into account to announce the rank.When the results were announced on May 29, not a single student from Karnataka featured in the top 10 list. Top five of the first six ranks were from Jamshedpur. Rank 3 was from Uttarakhand. Rank 7 was from Andhra Pradesh, Rank 8 from Chhattisgarh, Rank 9 from Punjab and Rank 10 from Bihar. When asked about the rally of toppers from a state, Kumar told TOI that the team will check the CCTV footage and video recordings to check the veracity.The students, who are suspected, appeared for the exam at three centres—Jai Sri Infotech, Govinda Vidyalaya and Creative Computers—in Jamshedpur. Most of the suspects are within the 500 range, with four of them in the top 10. ComedK notified each of the identified candidates individually and has given them an opportunity to appear before the ComedK authorities at Bangalore on or before 10th July 2026.Candidates will be allowed to inspect the material establishing their involvement and submit their explanation before making any final decision on cancellation or disqualification. These candidates will not be able to participate in the ongoing counseling and seat selection process until the consultation is completed.According to ComedK officials, these students are suspected to have received external help for the exams, which was provided through the invigilators, who have also been served notices by ComedK.ComedK officials said that as part of its established protocol, it conducted a full academic, administrative and forensic audit immediately after the exam was completed and the final results released. During this audit, certain anomalies were detected in Jamshedpur centres.“There are six criteria that we check in the academic and administrative audit. For example, how do students behave in the first 30 minutes and the last 30 minutes of the exam? The exam is a three-hour paper of 180 questions. We expect students to spend less than a minute with each question. There are cases where we found that students were not so active at 80, but half an hour at 80, 90 hours. We took a close look at the frame-by-frame CCTV footage of these students and found enough evidence of malpractice. These tests will be presented to the students when they present their explanation,” said S Kumar, Secretary, ComedK.“Similarly, we have our academic audits: we check the quality of the question paper, we use processes like item analysis, the distractor index and we check that students answer missed questions. We also verified that the 12 class notes match the students’ abilities based on their performance on the ComedK exam. We’ve been doing it since 2006,” he said.“Subsequent detailed verification, conducted with the assistance of ComedK’s examination service providers and technical partners, has yielded credible and conclusive evidence that certain candidates and staff engaged in acts amounting to examination malpractice.”Kumar said a police complaint will be filed when the students can present their arguments on July 10. “ComedK has formally informed the Admissions Oversight Committee (AOC) of these developments, ensuring that the statutory oversight body is fully informed of the steps being taken to preserve the integrity of the admissions process. Brochure and advisory manual, which allow ComedK to cancel candidature, exclude candidates from future examinations and take other necessary action where malpractice is detected,” said Dr Kumar.