Is there a chance that more ‘Bitti Mohantys’ could have secured degrees from universities across the State and gone scot free?
The glaring loopholes in the verification process in varsities reveal that such fears have a base.
Bitti Mohanty, who was covicted for raping a German woman, did his MBA at the Chinmaya Mission Institute of Technology at Chala affiliated to the Kannur University in 2009-11 after jumping parole. Interestingly, Bitti had produced a fake B. Tech certificate from the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology University (KIITU, a deemed university) in the name of Raghav Rajan.
Senior university officials, including those at Kannur University to whom The Hindu spoke on Tuesday, admitted there was no scientific mechanism to check the authenticity of degree certificates, especially those submitted by students belonging to other States.
The Offices of the Controller of Examinations are supposed to cross-check the authenticity of certificates submitted before issuing the hall ticket for the first semester examination. But no such procedure is followed in universities in the State, giving ample scope for impersonators to dupe the system.
When contacted by The Hindu , an official of the KIITU had denied that it had any student by name Raghav Rajan. However, he said Bitti was actually a Computer Science B. Tech student at the institute from 2001 to 2005. The university had issued a B.Tech certificate to him in July 2006.
Senior university officials pointed out that the Office of the Controller of Examinations should have verified the authenticity of the B. Tech degree certificate submitted by Bitti with the KIITU before issuing the hall ticket for the first semester MBA examination.
“No such procedure could be followed as the colleges concerned forward the certificates and other related documents a few days before the exam. We will have time only to issue the admit card and nothing else,” said a senior official of Kannur university.
The Offices of the Controller of Examinations will only check whether the university concerned is affiliated to the Association of Indian Universities (AIU). It will also issue an equivalency certificate based on the recommendations given by the Chairman of Board of Studies, who will verify the syllabus and course of the qualifying degree pursued by a student seeking admission from outside.
