Unauthorised degrees seized in Solan University raid

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, March 7

A special investigation team (SIT) headed by the district police seized degrees for unauthorised courses, unchecked answer-sheets as well as those solved during a raid at Manav Bharti University in Laddo village, according to IG (South) Asif Jalal. The raid, that began on Friday evening, lasted over 24 hours.

Vice Chancellor Rajkumar Rana was not on campus. Registrar Anupama Thakur and the administrative staff were confined to a hall while all six floors of the administrative block were searched. So were Rana’s residence at Karnal and a study centre.

As many as 10,000 blank degrees pertaining to professional courses for which the university has no permission, were found stacked in a hall. These included PGDCA, which was discontinued in 2011, MTech which was discontinued in 2012, MSc and Bachelors in Ayurveda (Pharmacy).

University officials claimed that 27,000 degrees had been printed and the 10,000 blank degrees were part of that lot. Even more shocking, the SIT reportedly found unchecked answer-sheets of individuals already issued degrees by the university. An LLB degree issued to a Tamil Nadu resident carried a noting that read: “Rs 35,000 received as first-year fee through RTGS on December 29,2016 of the total 1.25 lakh.”

In another case, a BCA degree had been awarded to a person whose answer-sheets were unchecked.

Several answer-sheets had no name or roll number. Irregularities in evaluation were detected too. Documents pertaining to Madhav University, the sister concern of Manav Bharti University in Mount Abu, Rajasthan, were also seized during the raid.

As many as 30 hard discs found in the university administrative block were seized. All five stores in the academic block were sealed. A team of forensic experts has been requisitioned to lift evidence and help sought from the HP Private Educational Institutes Regulatory Commission, Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, as well as the Department of Higher Education.

It was the University Grants Commission that had informed the state authorities that the university had sold four to five lakh degrees during the past seven years with the help of agents in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, UP, Bihar, Delhi, West Bengal and South India. Subsequently, the DGP directed the district police to look into the matter. An SIT headed by the SP, Solan, and comprising Additional SP Shiv Kumar Sharma and DSP Ramesh Sharma was constituted to probe the charges.