Lucknow: Vinay Pathak, the vice-chancellor of Kanpur’s Chhatrapati Shahu Ji Maharaj (CSJM) University, was booked by Uttar Pradesh’s Special Task Force (STF) Sunday on charges of corruption, extortion, wrongful confinement and criminal intimidation.
The case was filed by a contractor, David Mario Denis, who alleged that he paid Pathak — during the latter’s brief tenure as V-C of Agra University — a “commission” of Rs 1.41 crore for the release of dues amounting to at least Rs 9.76 crore owed to his company.
The FIR against the Kanpur University vice-chancellor and his alleged associate Ajay Mishra, the owner of Lucknow-based software company XLICT, was based on a complaint by Denis.
The complainant claimed Pathak “threatened” him and allegedly told him: “You don’t know; I make vice-chancellors. I’ve gotten V-Cs appointed to eight universities. I have to pay higher-ups.”
Denis is the proprietor of Lucknow-based company Digitext Technologies Pvt Ltd — a Lucknow-based company that, according to its website, deals with form processing and automated data capturing through OMR (optical mark recognition) and ICR (intelligent character recognition) technologies. Both technologies find use in various purposes, including reading and evaluating OMR answer sheets.
Ghazipur Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Vijay Raj Singh told ThePrint Tuesday that the FIR was registered at Lucknow’s Indira Nagar police station, adding that the matter is being probed by the STF. “Accused Ajay Mishra was arrested Sunday and produced before a court which sent him to judicial custody. Details of his arrest have been recorded in the police station, but the arrest was carried out by STF,” he said.
Sources in Uttar Pradesh Police said that Pathak has approached the Allahabad High Court seeking anticipatory bail and quashing of the FIR against him.
ThePrint reached Pathak via email but did not receive a response at the time of publication. This report will be updated once a response is received.
Pathak was given the additional charge as V-C of Dr B.R. Ambedkar University in Agra in January. The vacancy came up after the removal of Professor Ashok Mittal in July 2021 following allegations of administrative and financial irregularities.
Pathak was part of the three-member panel formed by Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel, in her capacity as ex-officio chancellor of the varsity, to probe the charges against Mittal. He held the additional charge of Agra University till September when Prof. Ashu Rani was appointed as the full-time vice-chancellor.
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FIR against Pathak
Denis told the police that his company was engaged directly by Agra University for pre- and post-examination processes from 2014-15 till 2019-20. But in the 2020-21 academic year, the varsity contracted state-owned UP Electronics Corporation Ltd, which in turn hired Digitext to carry out those services. According to the complainant, this was followed by non-payment of dues owed to his company for the sessions 2020-21 and 2021-22.
“I personally contacted Vinay Pathak and requested him to get my bills cleared following which, the V-C called me to his residence on the premises of Kanpur University,” read the FIR, a copy of which is with ThePrint.
Denis claimed when he met Pathak in February, the latter allegedly told him that he was entitled to a “commission of 15 per cent” (of the amount owed to Digitext) for clearing the payment. “When I informed him that I don’t have money to pay my employees, he said he won’t let my company work with any other university, which scared me,” read the FIR.
He was instructed to deliver the “commission” sought by Pathak to Ajay Mishra’s residence at Khurram Nagar in Lucknow, Denis claimed.
‘V-C took advantage of helplessness’
According to the FIR, it was Mishra who allegedly told Denis that his first bill of Rs 2.52 crore was cleared for which he ‘owed’ Pathak Rs 33 lakh.
“When I reached Mishra’s house with Rs 30 lakh, he forcefully made me sit and said that I was short of Rs 3 lakh. He [Mishra] said that the rest of the bills will not be cleared till the time I clear the remaining Rs 3 lakh and that I may lose my life,” read the FIR, quoting Denis.
The complainant added that of the total ‘bribe’ (Rs 1.41 crore) allegedly paid to Mishra, Rs 20 lakh and Rs 15.5 lakh were paid in cash instalments. In addition, amounts of Rs 51.63 lakh, Rs 11.80 lakh and Rs 10.99 lakh were “transferred to the account of Alwar-based International Business Forms at the behest of Mishra in April” from Digitext’s bank account “for clearance of a bill worth Rs 4.45 crore”.
He accused Pathak of taking advantage of his “helplessness” by taking Rs 1.41 crore from him, leaving him and his company “on the verge of collapse”.
Denis also claimed that Pathak threatened him in October when he refused to pay another Rs 10 lakh for continuing Digitext’s contract with Agra University. “When I told him that I would act according to what the new V-C says, he threatened and said my contract would continue only if I pay him Rs 10 lakh. When I didn’t give him the money, the contract was given to Ajay Mishra’s company [XLICT],” Denis alleged.
Separate probes are underway into other alleged irregularities in the functioning of Agra University that took place when Pathak was the in charge.
In October, three cases were lodged at Agra’s Hariparwat police station and four arrests were made in connection with allegations that examinations of some MBBS and BAMS (Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery) students were written by proxies and that some answer sheets were allegedly changed after submission.
The STF, meanwhile, has sought details of all the colleges that were granted affiliation by Agra University in the last five years. This was after allegations surfaced that nearly 100 colleges in the Aligarh division were granted affiliation between January and May in violation of norms.
(This report has been corrected to reflect the total amount owed to the complainant)
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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