The Ministry of Human Resource Development on Wednesday constituted a three-member fact-finding committee to inquire into allegations of financial and administrative irregularities against Professor Sushnata Datta Gupta, the Vice-Chancellor of Visva Bharati University.
In a memorandum issued by the Ministry, a copy of which is available with The Hindu it is stated that Ministry has examined the allegations and “after due consideration has decided to constitute a three member committee for conducting a fact finding inquiry into all the allegations.”
The committee comprising Justice Sakharam Singh Yadav, former Justice High Court of Allahabad, Mr B B data, Chairman Sri Aurobindo Institute of Indian Culture (Shillong) and Dilip K Chakrabarti, Professor of South Asian Archaeology, University of Cambridge will submit a report to the Central government preferably by March 31, 2015.
It is also referred in the order that the Committee would be free to devise its own procedure for conducting the inquiry and would consider the "response of the persons alleged against including the Vice Chancellor in accordance with principles of natural justice".
The MHRD fact–finding committee probe comes at a time when there is a growing resentment among academic community in Visva- Bharati and students on certain decisions taken by the Vice Chancellor.
Last year, >Prof. Duttagupta’s name was considered for Padma Shri award but he was not given the honour after the West Bengal Commission for Women pointed out allegations of sexually harassment against the VC in the past. Earlier Professor Duttagupta denied all charges.
