In a rare judgment a Birbhum court on Thursday sentenced former Vice Chancellor, Registrar and a professor of the prestigious Visva Bharati University to five years’ rigorous imprisonment after they were found guilty of forgery by the same court.
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Arvind Mishra on Thursday sentenced ex VC and mathematician Dilip Kumar Sinha, Registrar Dilip Kumar Mukherjee and Mutki Deb a former professor to 5 years’ RI after they were found guilty under various sections of Forgery Act, and Sections 467, 468, 471, 475 and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
A prosecution lawyer said that Deb had forged her testimonials and joined the University as a lecturer in mathematics despite being an undergraduate. Photostat copies of her forged mark sheets and certificates were allegedly stamped and attested by Dr Sinha who functioned as the VC of the said central University from 1995 to 2001.
Visva Bharati was founded by Poet Laureate Rabindranath Tagore and is considered a centre of excellence throughout the world.
It was alleged that Sinha had impersonated as one Rashbehari Ghosh a professor in the University of Calcutta. As a result Deb’s forged testimonials established her as a B.Sc, M.Sc and M.Phil pass outs from CU, Jadavpur University and Visva Bharati University respectively. The Registrar was found guilty for neglecting his duty by cross-checking the testimonials.
A case was registered after Deb applied for enrolment in Ph.D course in 2002. When she was asked to produce her original certificates she withdrew her application saying they had been stolen and even placed a police diary in favour of her claims.
After the authorities conducted a probe all the three were found guilty and an FIR was registered with the Bolpur Police Station.
Meanwhile, the advocate of the convicts said his client would prefer an appeal in the higher courts even as the trio was taken into jail custody.