Nagpur News: The Nagpur bench of Bombay high court has asked the local police to probe the appointments of more than 500 staffers at the Rashtrasant Tukdoji Maharaj Nagpur University.
A division bench comprising justice Ravindra Chavan and justice Prasanna Varale directed the Nagpur police commissioner before disposing of the plea on Wednesday.
A first information report (FIR) was lodged with Sitabuldi police but investigations were not conducted because of several reasons.
In 2009 scam was unearthed , following which multiple inquiries — including the one by retired high court justice GG Lone — were ordered.
Lone found that some job reservation manuals had been tampered with. The manipulations denied jobs to eligible candidates from reserved categories since 1999.
Following a delay in action, the high-powered legislative committee for the Vimukta Jati and Nomadic Tribe (VJNT) had also asked the university to initiate police action against the suspects, but in vain.
Petitioner Sunilkumar Mishra, former head of the board of studies of mass communication, has alleged that the scam cost the state exchequer more than Rs.300 crore in salary payments. Mishra had also filed an FIR in this case.
Assistant government pleader Rajesh Naik told the court that the FIR filed by Mishra was sent to Maharashtra’s higher and technical department.
Nagpur University has landed in a legal trouble twice in a month after February 27. Acting on another petition by Mishra, in which he had accused vice-chancellor Vilas Sapkal of submitting forged documents to seek top academic job, a division bench of justice Avinash Lavande and justice Arun Chaudhari, had asked Sitabuldi Police to start a criminal probe and submit report within five weeks.
Justice (retd) Lone had told HT in 2011 that job reservation manuals were forged since 1999 by senior university officer Ashok Manchalwar (now retired), following which the committee recommended filing a case against the officer. In a separate probe, then principal secretary (social development co-ordination and inquiry officer) PS Meena, also found appointments of senior teaching staff illegal
