HRA seeks CBI case against Prof Pandey
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, October 06 2018:
The Human Rights Alert (HRA) has written to the CBI Anti-Corruption Branch, Imphal to register a case and take up necessary actions against Professor AP Pandey and his accomplice for gross misuse of official power and misappropriation of money.
The HRA mentioned that teachers, students and staff community of Manipur University have been undertaking a series of protests since May this year demanding removal of AP Pandey.
The situation has escalated into a State-issue and various political parties, celebrities, eminent people from outside and the people of Manipur have rose up in support of the protest.
The protracted protests resulted in the calling off of classes and the future of the students hang in the balance.
It alleged that as per the university community, AP Pandey has been indulging in corrupt practices in the recruitment of several posts on contract basis and no public notification was issued informing interested candidates during the recruitment.
The university community alleged that no scrutiny for selection of the suitable candidates was done in the engagement process and accused AP Pandey and his accomplice of conniving with some people to select candidates on pick and choose method without disclosing the manner and the method of the selection, it added.
HRA continued that the university community even brought up the instance of an individual who got engaged as a contract staff in the university although they were not aware of any notification or advertisement for the appointment or engagement.
The organisation stated that as per the university community, a large amount of unaccounted money were allegedly donated to several politically motivated organisations with ulterior motives by AP Pandey by misusing his office.
HRA alleged that as per the university community, AP Pandey, in some trips between Imphal and Delhi, used to proceed towards Varanasi (his hometown) and stayed there for some days before proceeding to Delhi and coming back to Imphal.
However, the university community mentioned that Pandey is only entitled to the TA and DA for his travels but there are occasions for sanctioning the TA and DA to an individual who is not supposed to be entitled, HRA added.
As such, the organisation appealed to the CBI to act at the earliest looking into the gravity of the situation and added that urgent intervention on part of the CBI will help cleanse Manipur University from corruption.
HRA further opined that it would be more prudent for the CBI to take up a suo moto case as all the serious charges levelled against AP Pandey are already available in the public domain which the CBI is expected to be aware of since a long time back.
HRA further appealed to the CBI to register a regular case/FIR under appropriate section of the IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act against the involved officials and accomplice of the university who have been indulging in corruption by misusing official authority for long.