HRD Ministry to probe fake IIT Institute

The human resource development ministry will investigate the scam involving senior professors of Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur who duped poor students into joining an unrecognised institute offering invalid courses using the IIT campus and brand.

The human resource development ministry will investigate the scam involving senior professors of Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur who duped poor students into joining an unrecognised institute offering invalid courses using the IIT campus and brand.

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The ministry will set up a panel of academicians to conduct the investigation into the scam which HT was the first to expose on October 19. The panel will submit its report within a month, government sources said.

The decision came on a day when students duped by the fake institute — the Institute of Electrical Engineers (IEE) — petitioned the ministry accusing IIT Kharagpur of trying to “protect” those guilty. The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has also asked the HRD ministry to probe the scam.

“The HRD ministry will appoint a panel of academicians who will look into the administrative and academic violations in this scam,” a source said, adding that the probe report would be sent to the CVC as well.

As reported earlier, IIT Kharagpur aerospace engineering professor Amit Kumar Ghosh and at least three other faculty members — past or current — of the institute are under police investigation. Ghosh is also accused of forgery.

Ghosh, who was suspended by IIT Kharagpur after the HT expose, has accused two former IIT directors — Kasturi Lal Chopra and Shishir Dube — of being party to the operations of the fraudulent institute.