BHUBANESWAR: The Higher Education department on Monday sought Crime Branch inquiry against a former faculty member of Alarnath Dhanda Mulak Mahavidyalaya at Puri who secured the government job by allegedly submitting fake educational certificates and continued in the post for nearly four decades before retiring. He had submitted fake HSC, ISc and BSc certificates for the job.
While the accused Pradipta Kumar Sahoo retired from the post of reader in zoology on February 28 before any legal action could be initiated against him, the principal of the college Khageswar Jena has also been accused of remaining silent on Sahoo’s forgery which helped him continue in the post till retirement. An inquiry in this regard was conducted by the regional director of education, Bhubaneswar, who submitted his report to the department on February 4.
Last year, a local had filed an allegation of certificate fraud with the department against Sahoo who joined the college in 1989 and had been receiving grant-in aid benefits since 2002. Subsequently, the principal of the college was directed to inquire into the case and in reply to the allegation, Sahoo said that he had lost all his original certificates and had filed a police complaint in this regard. He produced photocopies of his certificates and the police complaint copy before the principal.
The RDE pointed out that Sahoo’s HSC certificate mentioned that he secured 468 marks but an inquiry at Harihar Nodal Vidyapith at Puri from where he cleared the exam revealed that he had only scored 290 marks. Besides, the roll numbers mentioned in his ISc and BSc certificates did not match with the roll numbers in certificates that were originally issued to him by the Utkal University in 1980 and 1982 respectively. Further, his name was not visible in the photocopy of the MSc certificate that was issued to him by Ravenshaw college then. The RDE said although the principal was aware of the matter, he did not submit his report to the department till January this year.