CMJ university registrar arrested

Meanwhile,the district and sessions court in Shillong has rejected an application for anticipatory bail made by Jha. The bail petition was rejected following opposition by the Meghalaya Police CID that is investigating alleged irregularities in the private university. The court also rejected bail petitions of three other officials Deb,university director Manjeet Kaur and HR manager Juban Kharpuri.

While two officers have been arrested so far,we are looking for Chandra Mohan Jha,the Chancellor of the university, IGP Rana said from Shillong. Jha,the IGP said,was not responding to calls made to his mobile phones,while deputy registrar Rai said he was away in Bihar. The Meghalaya Governors secretariat meanwhile has filed a caveat in the Shillong High Court so that the court does not take up the CMJ University case without first hearing the secretariats viewpoint.

The Meghalaya CID had registered a case against the CMJ University on April 30 on the basis of an FIR lodged by the Governors secretariat after it found alleged irregularities in the institution.

Established in 2009,the university has allegedly awarded a record number of 434 PhD degrees in one academic year 2012-13 apart from registering 490 more PhD scholars during the same year. The Governor,who is technically the Visitor of the university but has reportedly been kept in the dark regarding various decisions taken by the university,also said that 3,397 students have been enrolled and given degrees since 2010-11.

The Meghalaya CID has in the past three days searched the premises of at least two institutes in Guwahati that have been functioning as agencies and study centres for the CMJ University and were allegedly arranging PhD degrees for more than 100 college teachers in Assam. The CID team seized heaps of documents and computer files pertaining to award of PhD and other degrees by the university through these study centres.