Bihar university moves for FIR against ex-VC over ‘job scam’

The Bihar Agriculture University (BAU) at Sabour in Bihar’s Bhagalpur district has initiated the process for lodging an FIR against former vice chancellor ML Choudhary over alleged irregularities in appointment of 161 assistant professors-cum-junior scientists in 2012.

Incumbent VC Ajoy Kumar Singh said a formal request for lodging the FIR against Choudhary was made to Sabour police station on Monday. Choudhary is a Janata Dal (United) MLA from Tarapur constituency in the district.

Singh said university had earlier received a directive from the chancellor to initiate action against Choudhary after a probe panel indicted him.

The probe committee, headed by retired Patna high court judge, justice Syed Mohammed Mahfooz Alam, was appointed by the chancellor following allegation of irregularities in the appointments.

BAU sources said the university had in 2011 issued an advertisement seeking applications for 281 posts of assistant professor-cum-junior scientist. The appointments were made against only 161 vacancies under general category in 2012.

The inquiry was ordered on the basis of complaints received by the chancellor’s office about irregularities in the agriculture university.

The complaints said candidates who secured low marks in academics were given high scores in ‘interview and presentation’ in order to favour them. Likewise, many others with high scores in academics were shown to have fared poorly in ‘interview and presentation’, it was alleged.

An RTI reply provided to an applicant also corroborated the charges of irregularities in the appointment.

The BAU provided the RTI reply nearly after three years.