(Photo: Sipa)

A total of 46 people have been held accountable in two cases of identity theft involving college students in Shandong province, according to a notice released on Monday on the Shandong Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection website.

The notice said that Chen Yanping from the province's Guanxian county, who assumed the identity of Chen Chunxiu from a village of the same county, has been removed from her post at a community office. Her diploma has been nullified by the Shandong University of Technology. The police have also started investigations.

Her father and uncle, who requested and arranged the forging of ID materials from the county's admission office, senior middle school, public security station and the Shandong University of Technology, are being investigated.

Other people involved in the case include the former director of the county's admission office and the head of the related public security station whose punishments included expulsion from the Communist Party of China, probation and warnings from the Party.

Chen Chunxiu had said she would sue the woman who stole her identity.

Chen Chunxiu passed the national college entrance examination in 2004 but another student, Chen Yanping, took her place at Shandong University of Technology. Chen Chunxiu discovered the fraud in May when she applied to attend a college.

In the other case, the identity of Wang Lili in Liaocheng, Shandong, was stolen by another woman named Chen Wei as Wang sought to enter college in 1996. Both Chen Wei and her father, who masterminded the crime, have been expelled from the Party. Chen Wei was removed from her official post as a community official, and the public security department has started investigations.

Eleven other people involved in Chen Wei's case have been punished.

The cases attracted wide attention, followed by several individuals and media exposing more cases in which people used illegal means to be admitted into colleges.

Shandong then set up a special group on June 20 composed of officials from the province's commissions for discipline inspection and supervision, and its departments of public security and education, to thoroughly investigate cases, and the group later verified the first two cases.

The group is also investigating another case in which Gou Jing, a woman in Jining, also in Shandong, alleged her identity was stolen both times she took the college entrance exams. Investigation results will be published in a timely manner, the notice said.