BENGALURU: Two faculty members of the Kannada Department in Tumkur University are in the dock for falsely claiming that their articles were published in ‘Indian Literature’, a reputed journal brought out by Kendra Sahitya Akademi (KSA), in their attempts to get promotions.
While Professor Annamma sought promotion to the level of senior professor, Associate Professor PM Gangadharaiah sought promotion as professor. The duo submitted forged copies of the journal to Vice-Chancellor Prof M Venkateshwarlu to stake the claim. They claimed that their research articles – eight by Prof Annamma and three by Asst Prof Gangadharaiah – were published in the September–October 2024 issue of the journal.
Prof Annamma also submitted eight certificates, purportedly issued by the journal, to support her claim. However, it emerged that the certificates contained forged signatures of Prof Madhav Kaushik, the editor of the journal.
Prof Venkateshwarlu said, “Two committees were formed to check the veracity of the articles and both panels found that they were fake. We sought clarifications from the professors, but they insist that those articles are not fake. Both of them are still in service at the University.” Copies of these fake certificates and articles of Professor Annamma are accessed by TNIE.
The V-C said the KSA has confirmed to him that no articles by the duo were published in their journal. The KSA’s reply to the V-C, a copy of which is obtained by TNIE, read, “...Sahitya Akademi’s bi-monthly journal, Indian Literature, has not published, in any form, any contribution authored by Dr Annamma or Dr PM Gangadharaiah in any of its issues. In addition, Sahitya Akademi has never issued any certificate in the past as mentioned in your letter, nor do we have any policy or record of issuing such certificates…”
Dr Manmohan Singh Bengaluru City University Vice-Chancellor Ramesh B, who was earlier the director of Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC), also wrote to Prof Venkateshwarlu in September 2025, “Whenever professors submit research articles or papers to the university registrar, they conduct a basic scrutiny. If there are any doubts,
they are forwarded to the IQAC in which subject experts are appointed by the V-C... In this instance, the subject expert identified that the articles, as well as the journal submitted, were fake.”
Prof Annamma, however, told TNIE, “I have given a clarification to the V-C and I don’t like to comment about the same.” Prof Ganagdaraiah, said, “It is a conspiracy against me by some people working in Tumkur university to spoil my reputation and assassinate my character.”