A Bangladesh lawmaker has been expelled from university after allegedly hiring as many as eight lookalikes to take her place in exams, an official has said.
Tamanna Nusrat, from the ruling Awami League party, is accused of paying doubles to pretend to be her in at least 13 tests.
The scandal emerged after TV broadcaster Nagorik entered a test hall and confronted one of the women doubling as Nusrat in a video that went viral.
Nusrat, who was elected to parliament last year, was studying for a Bachelor of Arts degree with the Bangladesh Open University.
“We expelled her because she has committed a crime. A crime is a crime,” the university’s vice chancellor, Professor MA Mannan, told AFP news agency on Oct. 21. “We have cancelled her enrolment. She will never be able to get admitted here again.”
The proxy students were protected by the MP’s minders, which dissuaded others from questioning the situation, an unnamed official said.
Cheating, fraud and leaking of question papers ahead of exams are common in Bangladesh where police have been tasked with catching professional cheaters.
Neighboring India has also tried to clamp down on its cheating industry at universities and schools, including by deploying police and installing CCTV cameras.
A college in India apologized this week after photos emerged of students wearing carboard boxes on their heads during an exam to discourage cheating. The front of the boxes had been cut out, allowing students to see their papers but restricting their vision.
