Salem: Officials of the Directorate of Vigilance and anti-Corruption (DVAC) have booked four persons including former director of Salem Periyar University in connection with an alleged multi-crore rupees scam at its district education centre (DEC).
The scam relates to the alleged swindling of funds, paid by distance education students as examination fees at some regional centres of the Periyar University’s DEC including one at Kolkata. Of the over 500 educational centres that were under the ambit of its DEC, only 192 centres are functioning now, sources told DC.
The scam in the university's distance education system came to light when a candidate from West Bengal faced difficulty in getting his certificate. Sources said one Sarojkumar Majumdar of Kolkata had pursued M.Sc. course under Periyar University's DEC, at the Indian Institute of Professional Centre at Kolkata.
On completing his second year examination in 2011, Majumdar contacted the local centre in Kolkata to obtain his mark sheets, but they were not issued for a long time. Intrigued by this unusually long delay, he filed an application under the RTI Act seeking information from Periyar University and was shocked to get a reply that his mark sheets were not issued as he had not paid the examination fees.
Majumdar later paid the fees directly during a visit to the university in Salem in 2014 and obtained the mark sheets and degree certificate, sources said.
However, he also lodged a complaint with the DVAC demanding an inquiry into the irregularities in the Periyar University's DEC.
Investigations by the DVAC had revealed that the coordinator of Kolkata centre, one Mr. Jeyanth Mukherjee, had allegedly swindled '28 lakh paid as examinations fees without crediting the same to the Periyar University.
DVAC has now booked four persons including former director of DEC, Mr. Gunasekaran, retired officials P Mathaiyan, Prince Dhanaraj and coordinator of its Kolkata centre, Sri. Jeyanth Mukherjee, in connection with the scam and further investigations are on.
