Solan: Fresh complaint filed in varsity fund ‘embezzlement case’

Ambika Sharma

Solan, September 20

With an unidentified payment of Rs 10 lakh having been made by the staff of the tainted Manav Bharti University in 2020 after being embroiled in a fake degree scam coming to the fore, its working has come under the lens.

Weather the amount was embezzled by the staff or passed on to the university management was yet to be ascertained.

A complaint was lodged with the SP, Solan, by a university official on September 6, 2022 soon after the ‘embezzlement’ was detected in the audit report. With no action having been taken, a fresh complaint has been made on September 5.

SP Solan, Gaurav Singh said a probe was being conducted into the matter.

An audit pertaining to the fee receipt and monthly expenses was conducted from September 20 to March 21. The audit was ordered after the state government took over the university and appointed an administrator in September 2020. Since the previous record had been taken into custody by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the fake degree scam, the issues like outstanding fee from the students and salaries due towards the employees could not be verified in the audit.

All accounts pertaining to the university were sealed in March 2020 by the Solan police. The staff, however, continued to collect fee in cash from the students who were pursuing various professional courses and used it to meet various expenditures.

The audit detected an unidentified advance payment of Rs 10 lakh made by an accounts officer. Its records was not found in the university records.