Nine months on, NU panel yet to complete probe against GS Principal

Nagpur: The Nagpur University’s (NU) three-member panel set up to probe the alleged illegal appointment and complaint of pursuing full-time MPhil while in-service against GS College principal NY Khandait is yet to submit its findings even after nine months.
In April last year, the governor CH Vidyasagar Rao’s office had asked the NU to conduct a probe following a petition by Khandait’s former colleague Neeraj Vyas over his appointment. In June, the vice chancellor SP Kane had formed the inquiry panel and had asked it to also investigate the MPhil complaint by Dyaneshwar Dongre, another former lecturer at the college.

However, the panel comprising NU’s Babasaheb Ambedkar College of Law principal Shrikant Komawar, CP & Berar principal Milind Barahate and Deputy registrar Raman Madne conducted the hearings at a snail’s pace. One of them said the probe is in final stages and the report would be finalized soon.

He said the probe was stuck because of Komawar’s court case over his retirement age. The panel head has now got respite and can speed up the probe, the member said. The first hearing in the case was held in August when Khandait was served a notice.

Vyas couldn’t be contacted.

Dongre said both of them were called together for hearing in November. “The panel has delayed the case unnecessarily,” he said.

He said the university has all the records yet the panel sought proofs from us. “Khandait was a student of Nagpur University so the panel can easily verify our claims from its own department. The college is affiliated to the university and all its appointment records are with the college section whose official is part of the panel,” he said.

Dongre said he submitted a letter from a principal of another city college who was Khandait’s classmate during MPhil programme at NU campus as he couldn’t get a copy of the timetable.

Vyas had based his complaints on documentary evidences procured through Right To Information (RTI) Act. Similarly, Dongre too had found that Khandait had pursued full-time MPhil while being in-service. Dongre had lodged a complaint with NU on April 26.