MUMBAI: This may come as a shock for already beleaguered students of Mumbai University . By the university’s own admission, almost 28,500 answersheets of students are ‘missing’ or have been misplaced during online assessment, which has resulted in four months of chaos. Results of the affected students have been kept on reserve. Results of 57,000 students are also pending. The university, however, claimed only 12,000 students have complained and only 22,300 students applied for re-valuation.Arjun Ghatule, acting director (examinations & evaluations), said the papers of students, whose results are kept on reserve, are ‘‘logically (sic) or physically misplaced’’.“They are not completely gone from the system but have been misplaced, and we are looking for them and are getting them assessed as when they are found,” Ghatule said on Monday, at the first official media interaction in four months. Principals from city colleges said the data released by the university is grossly under-reported. “Students, who have remained toppers and have scored high marks in all subjects, and failed in one subject in this exam, are not recorded in the university’s system as an official grievance. These students may have to get their papers re-assessed and may even be forced to re-appear for the exam in October-November. Despite being toppers, such students will end up on losing admission opportunities,” said a principal.Another principal said, “While the university claimed results of students marked absent due to software errors are kept on reserve, there are students marked absent in one subject and failed in another. These students are considered ‘failed’ in the university’s records. Such students will have to re-appear for two papers during the ATKT exam.”Ghatule also said more papers had come up for moderation this year. In management, technology and arts more than 40% papers were moderated this year.The university declared tentative dates for semester V exams for TYBA, BSc and BCom on Monday but is yet to decide if it will continue with online assessment. “We have not taken any decision on this yet. The focus was on early announcement of results,” said acting vice-chancellor Devanand Shinde . Acting pro-vice-chancellor Dhiren Patel and officer-on-duty for assessment Vinayak Dalvie were present at the interaction The university may extend the date for applications for postgraduate admissions to September 15, said Dalvie, to allow all students to apply.Another principal pointed out that re-valuation application figures reported till September 10 may increase as students whose results were announced this month are yet to apply for re-valuation.Meanwhile, VC Sanjay Deshmukh, who was sent on forced leave, seems to be pulling strings to get reinstated, sources said. While he had written to the Governor seeking reinstatement in a detailed letter, government sources claimed he also went to Delhi to meet officials from the MHRD.