CBI charges former sacked VC Duttagupta with corruption

On Tuesday, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered a case against Susanta Duttagupta, the former Vice Chancellor of Vishwa Bharti University (VBU) and three others in alleged case of corruption. The CBI had earlier carried out raids at nine locations across West Bengal and Odissa in connection with financial irregularities during Duttagupta's tenure. CBI conducted searches at five premises in Shantiniketan; two in Kolkata (West Bengal) and two premises in Bhubaneswar (Odisha) which led to recovery of relevant incriminating documents, on Tuesday.

Along with Duttagupta, the CBI has alleged corruption and criminal conspiracy against Dr AP Trivedi, Finance officer, VBU, Shyamala Ray Nair, deputy registrar, VBU and Dr. D Gunasekharan, the former registrar of VBU and current registrar at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bhubaneshwar. All four accused have been charged under section 120b of the Indian Penal Code along with section 13/2 and 13/1d of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

In it's FIR, the CBI has alleged that the above officials entered into a criminal conspiracy among themselves and in pursuance with Nair who was appointed as the deputy registrar at VBU in violation of University Grants Commission (UGC) rules. It was alleged that Nair was appointed to her post despite not meeting the relevant education criteria and being at least seven years older than the prescribed age limit.

Sources stated that raids were conducted based on a tip-off and not at the behest of any ministry official.

Based on a September 2015 recommendation made by the Ministry of human resource development (HRD), President Pranab Mukherjee sacked Dattagupta from office on February 15, 2016 - seven months before the end of his term, making him the first VC to be sacked from a central university.

In February 2015, the HRD Ministry had constituted a three-member committee to probe complaints of financial and administrative irregularities allegedly committed by Dattagupta.

Irregularities allegedly being probed included Duttagupta drawing his basic salary of Rs 80,000 per month from VBU along with a monthly pension of Rs 17,596 from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) without getting his pension deducted from his pay, as a result drawing two benefits at one time. It was alleged that many appointments made during his tenure failed to meet eligibility criteria prescribed by the UGC. Ignoring the government rule, Duttagupta approved payment of Rs 5 lakh as honorarium to an enquiry officer even though the government has fixed a ceiling of Rs 75,000 for a departmental inquiry. That he got personal bills for alcoholic beverages reimbursed by the university during his stay at the India International Centre in New Delhi during August-September 2012, which is a serious case of financial impropriety.

The former VC was served a show cause notice in June last year. The ministry did not find his reply satisfactory and recommended his removal to the President on September. The President who is the visitor of the university had turned back the file twice seeking legal clarifications. The HRD minister had also met the president personally to brief him on the issue. Dattagupta was removed from office in February this year.

Beside Dattagupta, Delhi university former VC Dinesh Singh and Puducherry University V-C Chandra Krishnamurthy were also served show cause notice by the HRD ministry. Singh had replied to the show cause when in office and no inquiry was initiated against him.

The prestigious central university known for its unique teaching approach that is more attuned with nature was founded by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore and boasts of alumni such as Nobel-winning economist Amartya Sen, legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray, art historian R Siva Kumar among others.