'UoP shielding indicted former ISC director'

PUNE: The Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) admissions scam has returned to haunt the University of Pune (UoP) administration.
Atul Bagul, UoP's former senate member, claimed at a press conference here on Thursday that "the varsity administration has shielded the then in-charge director of International Students' Centre (ISC), Shantishree Pandit, who has been indicted in the matter by an inquiry panel for misconduct and moral terptitude."
The scam relates to alleged irregularities in letting Indian passport-holding students secure a backdoor entry to higher and professional courses through the quota marked for PIO students.
These admissions were effected between 2002 and 2007 by the ISC, which is the nodal agency for all foreign admissions at the UoP and its affiliated institutions.
"In the name of action, the university has handed out a minor punishment to Pandit by withholding her five salary increments, whereas the scam of such larger proportion entails a major punishment," Bagul said, while releasing details of a couple of inquiry reports relating to the scam.
The first of these inquiries was conducted by a four-member UoP management council panel (under the then council member Sunanda Pawar), which indicted Pandit for misconduct and moral terptitude. The UoP then chargesheeted Pandit for a departmental inquiry, which was conducted by justice (retd) J A Patil.
While justice Patil completed the inquiry and filed his report with the UoP in July 2009, the two inquiry reports were kept under the wraps by the UoP on the grounds that the same cannot be made public unless the ongoing special audit of the ISC for the 2002-07 period is completed.
Bagul, who tried in vain to secure a copy of the inquiry reports from the UoP, had to move a plea under the Right to Information Act before the State Information Commissioner, seeking directions to the UoP to give him the inquiry report copies.
On February 14, 2011, the SIC passed an order stating that "keeping the report away from the public cannot be justified."
The SIC stated that the inquiry by justice Patil and the ongoing financial audit of the ISC were independent activities.
"The UoP authorities have not justified as to how making the Patil report public would impact the audit work or, for that matter, action relating to the probe," the SIC had noted.
According to Bagul, the varsity statutes relating to departmental inquiry provide that an inquiry committee is not needed for handing out minor punishments, but the same is required in case of major punishments such as ordering compulsory retirement, demotion or suspension, among others.
He called for a review of the punishment and demanded that the matter be reinvestigated by the anti-corruption bureau (ACB) or the state criminal investigation department (CID).
Vice-chancellor of UoP Raghunath Shevgaonkar was not available for a comment on the matter owing to his pre-occupation with a day-long meeting of the state government's high-powered committee, under former Atomic Energy Commission chief Anil Kakodkar, to recommend a major overhaul of the higher and technical education.
The UoP has been given the responsibility of hosting this committee.