The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Uttar Pradesh government has indicted Prof Gangadhar Panda, the Vice chancellor of Kolhan University in Chaibasa for his alleged role in the irregularities and fake degree scam involving Varanasi-based Sampurnanand Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya.
The SIT has also named Prof Rajneesh Kumar Shukla of the central government-run Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya in Wardha, Maharashtra and 17 others for their alleged role in the fake degree scam that took place between 2004 and 2014. Both had served at Sampurnanand Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya during this period. The SIT has named them for their alleged role in a fake degrees scam that helped thousands to fraudulently grab posts of primary school teachers and other government jobs in Uttar Pradesh.
Panda was appointed as VC in May 2020. The Yogi Adityanath government had ordered a probe when it was revealed that a large number of successful candidates of the goverment job had obtained fake degrees and most of these were released from Sampurnanand Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya comes under the UP government. In the report, running over 100 pages was submitted on November 18, 2020. The SIT said there was whosoever was the registrars, exam controllers, system managers of Sampurnanand Sanskrit University between 2004-2014 had committed lapses and dereliction of duty.
The report had named Panda and Shukla among nine registrars/exam controllers, deputy registrars, and assistant registrars at the university and said that they had not performed their duties in a proper manner. "As a result the verification department carried out its work fraudulently and records of the exam department were tampered with at a large scale," the report reads. Panda held the post of registrar between February 11, 2009 and August 6, 2010.
In March this year, the UP government decided to initiate action against those named in the report under the UP Government Servant (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1999. The rule prescribed penalties like withholding increments, dismissal from service and also disqualifying a person from future employment.
