Former Visva Bharati VC, registrar found guilty in forged certificate case

The forged certificate case came to light in 2004, soon after Rabindranath Tagore’s Nobel medallion was stolen.

A West Bengal court on Wednesday found former Viswa Bharati vice-chancellor Dilip Sinha and registrar Dilip Mukherjee guilty of criminal charges related to conspiracy and forgery.

Students attend an outdoor class on the Visva-Bharati campus (Surojit Hazra/ HT Photo)(HT file photo)

The other person to be found guilty was Mukti Deb, a former lecturer of mathematics in the university, who produced the documents to land a job as a lecturer of mathematics. Significantly, Deb got the job without producing original testimonials but on the basis of photocopies attested by Sinha.

The prime minister is the chancellor of Viswa Bharati, a central university founded by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore. The marksheet scandal blew up on the institution just a few weeks after the theft of Tagore’s Nobel medallion in March 2004.

“Judge Arvind Mishra will pronounce the quantum of punishment on Thursday,” said Naba Kumar Ghosh, special public prosecutor for Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

Sinha, who served as the VC of the university between 1995 and 2001, was arrested by the CID in June 2004 from his residence but subsequently was granted bail. In March 2005, CID submitted the chargesheet against the trio at Bolpur court.

The accused were charged under IPC Sections 466 (forgery of record of court or of public register), 467 (forgery of valuable security, will), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 469 (forgery for purpose of harming reputation), 471 (using as genuine a forged document) and 474 (possession of document knowing it to be forged and intending to use as genuine).

The punishment for these sections varies between seven years in jail to life imprisonment.

The Case

On January 16, 1997, Mukti Deb was interviewed for the post of lecturer for mathematics. She furnished certificates of BSc from Calcutta University and MSc and MPhil from Jadavpur University. These documents were proved to be forged.

“The authorities of both institutions said that the certificates and marksheets were forged. She had appeared for part-1 exam of BSc but failed in it,” said Ghosh. During the interview, she produced photocopies of the testimonials that were attested by Dilip Sinha, said the CID counsel.

Five years after she joined Vishwa Bharati, Deb wrote to the university authorities seeking permission for enrolling for a PhD programme. “When the authorities asked her to submit original documents, instead of furnishing them, she said she was not interested in pursuing PhD,” said the CID counsel.

In end May 2004, Sunil Kumar Sarkar, former registrar of the university, lodged a complaint with Bolpur police station. Former chief minister Buddahdeb Bhattacharjee handed over the investigation to the CID. Deb taught the students of Visva Bharati for seven years before she was sacked in 2004.

“Sinha attested all the photocopies. No one raised a question as he was chairman of the university’s selection committee. Deb was selected as a scheduled caste candidate,” R K Mohanty, additional director general, CID told the media in June 2004 after Sinha was arrested.

CID officers said Sinha was known to Deb and her family.