NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation has filed a corruption case against the principal of National Defence Academy , Khadakwasla, Pune – Dr Om Prakash Shukla and other senior professors and heads of departments for alleged irregularities in the appointment of 13 ineligible teaching faculty members, including Shukla himself.

Those named as accused in the FIR alongwith Shukla include Dr Jagmohan Meher (Professor of Political Science), Dr Vanita Puri (associate professor of Chemisty), Dr Rajeev Bansal (associate professor of Mathematics), Dr Maheshwar Roy (Head of Department, Chemistry) and other unknown faculty members.

CBI has also named unknown officials of UPSC and Integrated Defence Staff (IDS), which comes under ministry of defence, in the FIR. The agency had registered a preliminary enquiry in the matter in May 2017, which has been turned into a regular case (FIR) earlier this month after which CBI teams on Wednesday conducted raids at several places in Pune and on NDA premises.

Shukla and other accused persons, CBI says, were selected and appointed in different posts of teaching faculty in NDA despite not possessing mandatory teaching or research experience as prescribed by UPSC and as required by MoD. The selection was done on the basis of forged and false certificates indicating their service and teaching experience and also exaggerated Academic Performance Indicator (API) score.

The faculty members of NDA, civilian posts, are appointed by MoD on the recommendations of UPSC, which functions as the selection authority. The Union Public Service Commission conducts preliminary scrutiny of the applications received and shortlists the candidates on the basis of their experiences and API scores.

After interviews, their degrees, diplomas, experience certificates are verified by IDS headquarters.

“Before June 2011, the eligibility criteria for recruitment for the different posts of faculty members included only educational qualification and teaching/research experience. However, after framing the Statutory Recruitment Orders (SROs) in June 2011 by MoD, in addition to the qualification and experience, MoD also introduced API score. It is calculated on the basis of research publications, presentation of papers in seminars, training courses attended etc. The candidates have to obtain a minimum API score to become eligible for the posts,” said CBI.

Shukla, CBI says, falsely exaggerated his teaching and research experience in his applications to UPSC for the post of professor (economics) in 2007 and then for Principal NDA in 2011 despite the fact that he didn’t have required experience for claiming such appointments.

His documents regarding his experience claim was also not verified by the officials of IDS headquarters at Delhi.

Similarly, Meher exaggerated his API scores in 2012 and his score sheet was certified by Shukla. Dr Vanita Puri also exaggerated her API score, which was certified by both Maheshwar Roy and Shukla. Bansal also adopted the same modus operandi.

