A senior IIT professor who was termed as an “unsung hero” by the Supreme Court for his efforts to clean entrance test for IITs has sought protection from the Centre under the newly enacted Whistleblower Protection Act.
Prof Rajeev Kumar has written several letters to President Pranab Mukherjee (who is visitor of IITs), the CBI and Central Vigilance Commission, but is yet to get a response. The computer science professor has now sought protection under the Whistleblower Protection Act, 2011 claiming that he was victimised by the UPA. While Prof Kumar’s crusade for reforming IIT-JEEs continues, the Kharagpur -based institute has proposed a Compulsory Retirement Penalty on him, according to the sources. Prof Kumar has now sought a meeting with HRD Minister Smriti Irani to explain how he was victimized by her predecessors from the Congress.
While he is already fighting a protracted battle in various courts, Prof. Kumar has also requested law and Justice Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad for protection under the Act.
Kumar started the battle against admission irregularities in IITs by his disclosures in 2006 that a candidate with 279 marks did not qualify for admission in IIT while candidates with 154 marks qualified. The Supreme Court in its judgment termed Rajeev Kumar as “one of the many unsung heroes who helped in improving the system” and asked the institute and HRD Ministry led by Kapil Sibal to thank the professor. Instead Kumar faced suspension in May 2011 only to reinstated in May 2013.
In his letter to Irani, the professor has also recalled his fight against current IIT Kharagpur Director Prof. PP Chakravarti, who was found guilty by CVC of misrepresenting facts in the Rs 40 crore Coalnet project; the then Director Prof D Acharya, who was accused of misleading the visitor by concealing the pending CBI’s penalty proceedings in few appointments matter. Acharya himself was indicted by CBI in the AICTE scam.