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HomeIndiaGovernanceNational Defence Academy principal forged papers, is ineligible for post: CBI

National Defence Academy principal forged papers, is ineligible for post: CBI

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CBI says 12 others — including professors of math, economics and chemistry — also fudged data to meet job standards. Agency raids Khadakwasla campus, no arrests yet.

New Delhi: The principal of the National Defence Academy (NDA), Khadakwasla, is among 13 teaching faculty of the institute — that trains cadets for the Indian military — who are ineligible for their posts and allegedly got their jobs on the basis of false certificates and documents.

The CBI, which launched a preliminary inquiry on 9 May, has registered an FIR against the 13 who were appointed between 2006 and 2015.

This week, the CBI conducted raids at the NDA campus and seized several documents, including marksheets and appointment letters. No arrests have been made so far.

Those named in the FIR include principal Dr Om Prakash Shukla, who was then professor of economics; Dr Jagmohan Meher, professor of political science; Dr Vinita Puri, associate professor of mathematics and Dr Maheshwar Roy, head of the chemistry department, among others.

According to the FIR, all 13 did not have the required teaching or research experience as prescribed by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) and mandated by the Ministry of Defence, when they were appointed.

The CBI alleges that the 13 faculty members managed to secure the jobs in connivance with UPSC officials and those from the Headquarters, Integrated Defence Staff (HQ-IDS), which falls under the defence ministry. All of them allegedly produced forged and false certificates indicating teaching experience and exaggerated academic performance scores (API).

Principal under scanner

According to the CBI, Shukla falsely exaggerated his teaching experience and research output while applying for the post of professor (Economics) at the NDA in 2007. Shukla then allegedly fudged his API score to meet the minimum requirement, which the UPSC had set for posts in the NDA in 2011.

The CBI says Shukla, who applied for the principal’s post in 2011, did not have the required teaching or the API score to claim the appointment. The API score is calculated on the basis of research publications, presentation of papers in seminars and training courses attended.

According to the procedure, NDA faculty members are appointed by the defence ministry on recommendations of the UPSC, which is the selection authority. The UPSC conducts preliminary scrutiny of applications and shortlists candidates based on their API scores. An interview is then conducted and recommendations are sent to the ministry, which gets the documents verified by the HQ-IDS.

“Shukla claimed false and exaggerated teaching and research experience and further his documents were not even verified by the officials of HQ-IDS, MoD, before he was given the post,” an investigator said.

Similarly, Meher, Puri and Bansal too allegedly showed incorrect APIs in their applications to UPSC in 2012, while applying for the posts of professor and associate professors respectively.

Connivance of MoD, UPSC?

The CBI alleges that in all the cases the documents submitted by the applicants were not verified by either the ministry or the UPSC.

“The exaggerated score sheets of Meher, Puri, Bansal were certified and forwarded to UPSC. Their documents were not even checked by either their heads or UPSC, before they were shortlisted and recommended to the MoD for appointment. The MoD too did not get these documents verified by HQ-IDS, which raises serious suspicions,” an officer said.

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