By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: A day after the State Police seized over four thousand alleged fake PhD theses following a raid on the CMJ University office, absconding Chancellor of the varsity, Chandra Mohan Jha, termed the police action as a desperate ploy to keep the controversy alive.
In a letter addressed to Deputy Chief Minister Prof RC Laloo, Jha called for the removal of police personnel from the University campus for resumption of the academic activities.
Condemning the action of the CID sleuths, Jha, in the letter shot off to Prof Laloo, stated, “The disclosure about the theses three months after the University campus was sealed is also an attempt to mislead and create suspicion in the minds of people and unfairly influence the decision makers.”
The absconding CMJ Chancellor alleged that police have seized and sealed the University for nearly three months now and they had full knowledge about the papers, examination sheets, synopsis, theses and documents pertaining to the University.
“This selective media leak by police is nothing but a sinister attempt at this juncture to sensationalise the issue and conduct a media trial on the PhD issue of the University,” Jha said in the letter that was made available to the media by the legal advisor of CMJ Foundation SP Sharma.
On police claims that over 4000 theses have been seized from the University office, Jha said the number is not surprising as each PhD scholar has to submit at least 7-10 copies of theses.
“The University had informed the UGC that it admitted 490 PhD students in the current academic year and 432 students in the previous year. Hence, nearly 1,000 PhD students are enrolled with the University. Therefore, there is nothing surprising about the number of PhD theses which have been seized,” the Chancellor added.
Jha also ridiculed police claims that the seized theses are worth around Rs 127 crore. “These theses are not PhD degrees awarded by the University,” he said adding that the 432 PhD degrees awarded by the private varsity were granted over a period of three years after ‘strictly adhering’ to UGC guidelines.