More IIT profs caught in the act

Investigators have unearthed evidence linking four more Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur professors to operations of a fake institute run by senior IIT professor Amit Kumar Ghosh using the Institute campus and brand.

Investigators have unearthed evidence linking four more Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur professors to operations of a fake institute run by senior IIT professor Amit Kumar Ghosh using the Institute campus and brand.

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The evidence comes even as the Central Vigilance Commission has asked the HRD ministry to probe alleged irregularities in the appointment of Institute registrar TK Ghoshal.

HT first exposed the scam involving the fake Institute of Electrical Engineers (IEE) run by Ghosh using his IIT Kharagpur department office and the IIT brand to dupe students. Ghosh has named two former IIT Kharagpur directors in the scam, who denied the charge.

Police sources said the fresh evidence with them involves a photograph from a convocation ceremony of the fraud institute which shows five IIT Kharagpur professors seated next to Ghosh. Two of them - Pallab Kumar Chattopadhyay, professor of agricultural and food engineering and Punyabrata Dutta Gupta, electrical engineering professor - have retired from IIT Kharagpur, sources said.

Two others include Jayanta Pal, current acting as head of department of electrical engineering at the IIT, and NK Kishore, another electrical engineering professor at the Kharagpur IIT. Retired professor JC Biswas, already under the police scanner, is also seen in the photograph.

"These professors... knew about the IEE. Their presence at the convocation of the fraud institute gave it legitimacy. We need to determine their level of involvement," an investigator said. Duped students have also written to HRD minister Kapil Sibal asking him to take action against these professors.