A three-member panel of the Human Resource Development Ministry has reportedly indicted Viswa Bharati Vice Chancellor Sushanta Dattagupta for several improprieties, including financial irregularities. The panel, which was set up in February this year to enquire into the allegations against Dattagupta, submitted its over 500-page report on Monday.
Dattagupta has been accused of appointing a Controller of Examinations despite having no powers to do so and sanctioning key posts in violation of the Visva Bharati Act. A section of teachers and students in the varsity had been demanding the VC’s removal and were on strike on many occasions. The charges against Dattagupta had been raised in Parliament during the Winter Session by Congress MP Pradeep Bhattacharya who had demanded action against him. The HRD committee comprised former judge of Allahabad High Court Sakharam Singh Yadav, chairman of Sri Aurobindo Institute of Indian Culture (Shillong) B B Dutta and professor of South Asian Archaeology of Cambridge University Dilip Chakrabarti.
Sources said the report has taken cognizance of several enquiries and complaints against Dattagupta including his alleged misappropriation of funds, serious vigilance enquiries at the CVC etc. Besides complaints of irregularities in appointment matters, Dattagupta has been claiming pension as a pensioner from Jawaharlal Nehru University, cited the report according to sources.
The UPA Government had selected him for a Padma award but his name came under controversy after the National Commission for Women had written to then PM Manmohan Singh seeking the decision to be overturned. Dattagupta was found guilty of sexual harassment of a colleague in 2005 by a Ministerial Committee set up by the then HRD Minister Kapil Sibal.