The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Wednesday raided the state-run Punjab Engineering College (PEC) here and booked 11 students, including five girls, for submitting forged documents to secure admissions under the Non-Resident Indian (NRI) quota.

The raid was conducted following complaints of irregularities in admissions to seats reserved for NRI students, CBI officials said.

PEC is the alma mater of famous astronaut Kalpana Chawla, the first India-born woman and the second person of Indian origin to fly in space.

'During the last few days, we had received a couple of complaints regarding students taking admissions in various engineering streams at the PEC under the NRI quota by procuring forged documents. Therefore, we conducted a surprise raid at the PEC campus today,' Mahesh Aggarwal, deputy inspector general of the CBI, Chandigarh, told IANS Wednesday.

'During the raid, we found gross irregularities in the documents submitted by some students. We have booked 11 engineering students and several others and started our investigation. The accused students, who originally belonged to different districts of Punjab and Haryana, submitted the documents showing themselves as Nepal residents,' he added.

CBI sources said the agency had received complaints that irregularities had been committed by the college authorities in admissions to NRI seats.

Talking about the modus operandi, the official spokesperson of CBI said here late Wednesday, 'The accused students had secured admissions under Direct Admissions of Students Abroad (DASA) scheme. Under the DASA scheme, foreign nationals, persons of Indian origin and Indian nationals studying abroad are eligible for admissions. The students are required to appear in Scholastic Aptitude Test- II, besides fulfilling other academic qualifications.

'The mastermind behind this organized crime is Nishi Kant, a resident of Hisar town in Haryana,' said the spokesperson.

CBI officials said that Kant had managed these admissions on the basis of forged documents by charging Rs.10 to 15 lakh from each student. A CBI team from Chandigarh also raided Kant's residence in Hisar wednesday.

The PEC is a leading engineering institution in the region and is run by the Chandigarh administration.

'We have seized some documents for further scrutiny. We will see whether any PEC official is involved in this racket,' said Aggarwal.