Funds siphoned off at Mahendragarh Central University

Ravinder Saini

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Mahendragarh, November 10

A case pertaining to siphon off public money in lakhs through computer programming meant for receiving admission fee and other funds has come to the fore in the Central University of Haryana (CUH) here.

A former system analyst is suspected to be involved in the financial embezzlement and has, as per the university authorities, deposited some amount back in the university’s account. He worked at the university from October 2021 to August 2022 on a contractual basis.

Two separate complaints — one from a suspended Registrar and another from Registrar-in-charge of the university — have been filed with the police.

In a complaint filed yesterday, the Registrar, Prof Sunil Gupta, who was suspended by the Vice Chancellor, Prof Tankeshwar Kumar, on November 3, citing disciplinary proceedings being contemplated against him, said he had learnt about the embezzlement some days ago.

“As per the receipts, one-third amount of the fee paid through the software was credited to a private bank account, while the remaining was deposited in the university’s account. The embezzlement amount might be huge, hence the matter needs to be investigated,” he said. Prof Gupta accused the Vice-Chancellor of trying to suppress the case and protect the accused.

Meanwhile, rubbishing the allegations, the Vice-Chancellor said an inquiry committee was formed and a high-powered committee meeting was held when the matter surfaced during reconciliation of the record.

“The committee has so far found the embezzlement of around Rs 12 lakh and the amount has been recovered from the system analyst.

On preliminary recommendations of the committee, a complaint through email was moved to the police on November 8 to take action against those guilty,” said the Vice-Chancellor.

In the police complaint, Prof Suneel Kumar, Registrar-in-charge, said public money was siphoned off through computer programming.

Mahendragarh SP Nitish Agarwal said a complaint was being investigated by the economic cell of the district police. Another complaint was not in his knowledge, he added.