In order to defend people who were exposed, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University (SMVDU) administration is continuously hounding a whistleblower who exposed the alleged irregularities in appointments/promotions/re-designation/increments and biased administrative and academic scenario.
Sources in the University told that the whistleblower is a senior faculty member. His casual leave is cancelled apparently to punish him and his medical leave application is rejected. Moreover, his salary has been cut and he is forced to work under the supervision of his juniors.
According to the sources, Vice-Chancellor of the University was made aware of the situation but he did not take any action because of the strong political influence of those who have been exposed. When whistleblower didn’t get any response from the Vice-Chancellor, he wrote to the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, which resulted in the constitution of an enquiry committee.
The whistleblower told sources that when he observed working of some faculty and staff members, he noticed frequent use of unethical conduct. When he further explored about academic credentials and past career of these employees he found that there were irregularities in initial appointments/promotions of faculty members and non-teaching staff. The list includes Sunil Wanchhoo, Ajay Kaul, Sumeet Gupta, Shashi Bhushan Kotwal, Anang Kumar Das, Tripti Saitu Gupta and there might be few more names. Some of the SMVDU faculty and staff members even got undue increments.
It was alleged that Sumeet Gupta, Present Dean Academic Affairs had an invalid degree. Even though he has more than 10 years of teaching experience, he scored only 45.5 % marks in the AICTE deemed to be university examinations, which were held on the courts intervention to validate his invalid master degree.
The whistleblower demanded critical examination of documents of appointments/promotion/increment of some of the faculty members for allegedly having no academic and research credentials and for producing fake/manipulated work experience during their initial appointments.
Vinod Sharma, Private Secretary of the Vice Chancellor SMVDU, said that the Lieutenant Governor has initiated a probe, so they are unaware about its status.
He said that this is a high-level enquiry, so University will not be much involved. The committee has been constituted by the Lieutenant Governor and university authorities are not aware of any development in this regard. He also said that they cannot comment anything about the allegations, as they don’t know about any allegations.