Kohchade's one-time confidante, Vishalaxmi, who was privy to the modus operandi of the racket prior to falling out with the now suspended assistant registrar, has not only ``confirmed'' his role but also provided names of some others in league with him, police sources told The Indian Express this evening.

While the police have desisted from identifying these suspects, for obvious reasons, they sounded confident of arresting them in the next few days. Most of them represent the lower rung of the varsity, sources said, adding that some were even reported to have gone into hiding.

Among other things, Vishalaxmi stated before the police team which had been to Guntur, that Kohchade collected Rs 2 lakh from her familyto ensure admission for her younger sister to a medical degree course. However, this was not to materialise, leading to the rift between them. She even reported the matter to the Vice Chancellor who assigned a one-man inquiry committee which could never submit its findings.

In a simultaneous development, a four-member team of police sub-inspectors (PSIs) commenced a scrutiny of the tabulation registers and other documents at the university office to ascertain the number of revaluations processed by Kohchade during his tenure with the revaluation department.

The task is voluminous considering that on an average two lakh students appear for various examinations throughout a year and nearly 60 per cent of these go for revaluation following the results, a senior police officer observed.

Considering this aspect, he said, the investigators were concentrating more on the revaluation of engineering and medical papers, carried out during the winter exams of 1998. ``This will also provide us some vitalevidence,'' the officer said.

Earlier on Tuesday, officiating registrar Prakash Badribabu Mistri was interrogated by the Sitabuldi police for more than five hours without much to show.

``We haven't got anything concrete so far from him but his (Mistri's) involvement cannot be ruled out,'' the officer added. For almost a couple of decades now, Mistri had had a pivotal role in the activities of the varsity examination section of the university.

Meanwhile, efforts were on to secure police custody remand of Kohchade who was sent to the Central Jail on Monday, under judicial custody by the court of special judge (ACB) P G Thombre.

The police were reported to have urged the jail authorities to produce him in the court, Tuesday, to enable them seek his custody through a transfer warrant.