Meghalaya cops raid,seal CMJ university

Sleuths of the Criminal Investigation Department CID of the Meghalaya Police have raided and sealed the CMJ Universitys administrative headquarters

Sleuths of the Criminal Investigation Department CID of the Meghalaya Police have raided and sealed the CMJ Universitys administrative headquarters and chancellors office in Shillong following an FIR lodged by the state governors office.

Confirming this,B Rana,IGP CID Meghalaya Police,said while a case was registered against the controversial university on the basis of an FIR lodged by the governors secretariat,the universitys head office at Laitumkhrah in Shillong was sealed on Thursday evening and numerous documents and files were seized.

We also have an order from the additional district and sessions judge of East Khasi Hills district on the strength of which we have sealed the CMJ Universitys head office and seized a whole lot of documents,files and computers, IGP Rana told The Indian Express over the telephone from Shillong. The CID would also carry out similar searches in the universitys 40-acre campus at Jorabat,the IGP said.

The CID is particularly looking into the alleged fraud committed by the university by awarding fake degrees to hundreds of students from all over India. The university,according to a report of the Governors secretariat,had even awarded PhD degrees to 434 candidates during 2012-13.

The university has on its website announced that it offers PhD in as many as 79 different subjects,which include agriculture,horticulture,engineering,forestry,fashion technology,insurance management,microbiology,nursing,peace studies,pollution control,physics,nanotechnology,police administration,Sanskrit,spots science,Urdu and yoga.

Meanwhile,IGP Rana said the police have not been able to locate Chandra Mohan Jha,the universitys Chancellor,as also its vice-chancellor P C Sharma. While the police gathered that Jha was away in Bihar to attend a family function,sources in Guwahati said he was in the city on Thursday and made an attempt to meet Meghalaya Governor R S Mooshahary while he was on his way to New Delhi at the LGBI Airport here.

Governor Mooshahary,who is legally the Visitor of the private university that was established by an Act passed by the Meghalaya State Assembly in 2009,had on April 30 written to the chairman of the CMJ Foundation which runs the university that the latter had indulged in a series of irregularities including illegally appointing a Chancellor and awarding degrees and PhDs to hundreds of students by flouting the rules. Declaring such degrees as illegal,Governor Mooshahary even directed the university to withdraw/recall all the degrees it had so far given.

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Several attempts by The Indian Express to contact the CMJ University officials through the telephone numbers given at its website have not yielded any result.