FIR against IIT Roorkee director, 4 others for ‘financial fraud’ worth crores

The Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate court of Roorkee in Haridwar district has ordered the police to file a case against the director of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee and four other staffers for alleged “financial fraud” in scholarships, central grants and construction money.

The order was passed by the court on Wednesday while hearing a petition filed by a former IIT staffer Manipal Sharma who alleged that IIT director Ajit Kumar Chaturvedi, Manish Shrikhande, dean of IIT’s Sponsored Research & Industrial Consultancy (SRIC), Jitendra Dimri, assistant registrar (SRIC), Dhiraj Upadhyay, junior assistant (SRIC) and Rajesh Kumar clerk (SRIC), committed financial fraud worth crores for over more than a decade by siphoning off the money of grants and other aids to their bank accounts.

Sonika Srivastava, in-charge media cell, IIT Roorkee, in a media statement on behalf of the institute said, “The matter is already being investigated by the police and the institute had already lodged a complaint against one of the accused Upadhyay in June this year for siphoning off Rs 1.05 crore to his bank account.”

“The police have also questioned the accused assistant registrar in its probe. The institute would continue to extend its full support to the police in the investigation,” she said.

Manipal Sharma alleged that, before getting retired on July 31 this year after 37 years of service at the IIT, he raised the issue before the administrators for taking action on it but they didn’t pay any heed to it, instead behaved improperly against him. It was then he filed the petition before the court to seek action. HT has a copy of the three-page order.

The Roorkee Kotwali police station, which has been directed by the court to register a case, is, however, yet to register a case.

Rajesh Shah, station house officer, Roorkee Kotwali said, “The order was received from the court on Thursday. However, we are yet to register a case as we are examining the order. The directions would be followed soon.”