Mumbai professor accused of plagiarism in PhD thesis

Allegedly, Neeraj Hatekar, a professor of econometrics, copied excerpts from the PhD thesis of his own wife Rajni Mathur, who is a professor at SIES College, Sion

The University of Mumbai (MU) is looking into a complaint that a professor at the Mumbai School of Economics and Public Policy plagiarised part of his PhD thesis.

Hatekar has denied the allegation, claiming rather that his wife has lifted excerpts from an academic paper he had written earlier for her thesis.(HT FILE)

The university has appointed a committee to probe the allegations made by the complainant Swati Vora. In a letter to the governor, Ch Vidyasagar Rao, who is also the chancellor of all public universities in the state, she alleged that Neeraj Hatekar, a professor of econometrics, copied excerpts from the PhD thesis of his own wife Rajni Mathur, who is a professor at SIES College, Sion. 

A spokesperson from Raj Bhavan said, “We have forwarded the complain to the university to seek the opinion of the vice-chancellor.”

Hatekar has denied the allegation, claiming rather that his wife has lifted excerpts from an academic paper he had written earlier for her thesis. However, she has attributed the paper in her dissertation, said Hatekar. 

“The complainant has highlighted only selected parts from our works,” he said.

The professor said that while the parts of the PhD thesis are borrowed from his own working paper, certain extent of ‘self-plagiarism’ is allowed in research work. However, he said that the university doesn’t have any framework or policy to measure the extent of plagiarism.