Ex-Visva Bharati Vice-Chancellor, Teacher Found Guilty In Forgery Case

A court on Wednesday found former Visva Bharati university vice-chancellor Dilip Kumar Sinha, registrar Dilip Mukhopadhaya and mathematics teacher Mukti Dev guilty in a case of forgery and conspiracy.

Their punishment would be announced today.

It will be the first time in the country that a former vice-chancellor of a university would be punished for forgery.

The crime came to light in 2004, months after the theft of Rabindranath Tagore's Nobel medal. Sinha had already retired and the investigation was handed over to the CID.

Dev had worked as a lecturer in mathematics in the university, teaching post-graduate students for around six years, without having the required qualification.

Probe report said she passed higher secondary examination and secured a teaching job at the central university in 1997 by submitting photocopies of fake testimonials at the time of joining, CID counsel Nabakumar Ghosh said.

Those photocopies were attested by Sinha, who was the then VC of the university, he added.

After Sinha's retirement in 2001, Dev was show-caused in 2004 by the Visva Bharati executive council, which subsequently suspended and dismissed her.

Sinha was arrested from his Kolkata residence by CID in 2004 and subsequently, granted bail.

In March 2005, the CID had submitted the chargesheet against the trio in a Bolpur court.

Mr Ghosh said cases against the three have been filed under various charges. All the three were present in the court on Wednesday and were taken into custody.