Bengaluru: In a surprising turn of events, not a single student from Karnataka has secured a place among the top 10 ranks in the Consortium Medical, Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka’s (Comed-K) undergraduate entrance test, the results for which were announced on Friday. This marks a significant shift from last year when four of the top 10 students hailed from Karnataka.
Out-of-State Students Dominate Top Ranks
The top six ranks were dominated by students from Jharkhand, with the exception of rank 3 which went to a candidate from Uttarakhand. Rank 7 was secured by a student from Andhra Pradesh, rank 8 from Chhattisgarh, rank 9 from Punjab, and rank 10 from Bihar. Darshil Modi from Ranchi clinched the first rank, followed by Priyanuj Bhagabati of Jamshedpur at rank 2, and Shrestha Gupta of Dehradun, Uttarakhand, at rank 3.
Darshil Modi is currently in Jaipur attending coaching classes and aims to crack the Joint Entrance Examination (Advanced). Shrestha Gupta is likely to join RV College of Engineering for computer science.
Karnataka's Performance in Percentile Ranks
While Karnataka students did not feature in the top 10, they performed well in other percentile brackets. Among the top 100 students, 30 are from Karnataka. A total of 11,207 candidates scored between the 90th and 100th percentile, of which 3,496 are from Karnataka. Similarly, out of 11,385 candidates in the 80th to 90th percentile, 3,207 are from Karnataka. In the 70th to 80th percentile range, 3,111 out of 10,940 candidates are from Karnataka.
Approximately 1,10,774 candidates (36,954 from Karnataka and 73,820 from other states) wrote the test on May 9, 2026. The exam is crucial for securing around 20,000 engineering seats in 150 private colleges across the state.
Forensic Audit Ordered Amid Concerns
“Since we have been hearing about so many exam scams, we have also checked the veracity as we noticed clustering of high ranks from one state. All the five students have secured more than 95% in class 10 and 12 marks. Additionally, we have also ordered a forensic audit of the centres in Jharkhand. Our team will check the CCTV footage and video recording of the exam and check the veracity,” said Dr S Kumar, executive secretary of Comed-K.
“For the past 29 years, we have been conducting the exam without a glitch. We have also added a disclaimer on the website that if there is any evidence of malpractice, we will have the right to cancel their rank,” he added.
Counselling Process and Seat Allocation
The counselling will be conducted online, and candidates are required to upload scanned copies of their documents. The number of seats available, tuition fee details, and counselling dates will be notified in due course. A separate set of counselling process documents, detailing the procedure for participation, will be made available shortly on the official website (www.comedk.org).
