Promising promotion, Dhawankar ‘collected money’ from teachers

Nagpur: More skeletons are tumbling out after the serious allegations emerged against Nagpur University’s former mass communication department HoD Dharmesh Dhawankar.
NU officials alleged that he not only defrauded the seven heads of departments (acting), but also collected a big chunk of money from many teachers and non-teaching employees under the garb of promoting them using his good contacts with vice chancellor Subhash Chaudhari and pro-VC Sanjay Dudhe.
He also flashed his contacts with ministers. He used to tell the teachers that he would help them out for promotions under the career advancement scheme (CAS) and would settle all discrepancies by using his clout.
“Earlier, he used to indulge in such activities on a low scale, but after Chaudhari appointed him as public relations officer (PRO), his activities grew. Even the teachers, like the seven HODs, believed him blindly as he used to sit in the VC’s chambers for hours in the evening time and his name was also flashed in the media regularly,” they claimed.
Expectedly, Dhawankar took Chaudhari and Dudhe’s route of not to answer the TOI’s media calls and text messages to avoid replying to tough questions on the controversial issues.
Without naming Dhawankar, the VC told an electronic channel that there were reports of demanding cash transactions in the name of seniors. “We are issuing a circular calling on all such victims to come forward and lodge complaints with names. We will take strict action against all such elements. Since the complainants and accused are both from the university, the issue is indeed serious and strict action would be taken against anyone found guilty in the inquiry,” he said.
Expressing surprise over the way the seven HODs fell pray to Dhawankar’s luring, Chaudhari further clarified that he had not received any sexual harassment complaint from any girl against any of them.
“No panel was constituted by me to probe any such complaint. Therefore, there is no question of him (Dhawankar) being appointed as a member on any committee. One complaint (Against NU Hindi Department HOD) was received from two PhD students earlier this year after which we had instituted a panel led by the retired judge. If there is any complaint, we have a sexual harassment panel which would handle it and not any individual teacher,” he said.
Dy chairperson Neelam Gorhe to speak to VC on harassment cases
Maharashtra Legislative Council deputy chairman Neelam Gorhe expressed concern over seven department heads lodging a complaint against Dhawankar for allegedly defrauding them of Rs15.50 lakh under the pretext of saving them from sexual harassment cases.
“If these teachers have not committed anything wrong, they should not have paid lakhs of rupees to settle the cases. They could have lodged a complaint with the police. There is an urgent need to launch thorough investigations into the case. I will personally talk to the VC in this regard,” she said.