NEW DELHI: The row over the resignation of IIT Delhi Director R Shevgaonkar has flared up further with the Union HRD Ministry on Monday saying that a Committee was looking into the legality of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the premier institute with Mauritius to set up a campus there, as it violated the IIT Act.
Meanwhile, the IIT maintained that all rules were followed in the MoU, which was signed with the concurrence of the HRD Ministry. The IIT-D in a statement here also said the director had resigned due to personal reasons.
The IIT gave a statement on Monday giving facts of the case as to how the institute in Mauritius was set up.
The issue had stirred up a controversy after it was suggested that Shevgaonkar had put in his papers following pressure from the ministry owing to the payment of `70 lakh as dues to BJP leader Subramanian Swamy who had served at the institute in the early 1970s.
The ministry claimed that it had “neither forwarded Swamy’s request to IIT-Delhi nor given any direction to make the arrears payment to Swamy. The views of the DoPT and the Ministry of Finance have been sought on the matter.”
However, the controversy had taken another turn when it was alleged that Shevgaonkar had exceeded his brief and had “personal interests” in Mauritius. The BJP had also jumped to the defence of HRD Minister Smriti Irani saying that the allegations against Shevgaonkar related should be investigated.