DU suspends five officials for leaking Smriti documents

The Delhi University (DU) Friday suspended five officials for allegedly leaking documents related to educational qualifications of union Human Resources Development Minister Smriti Irani, officials said here.

"Five of the non-teaching staff of the school of open learning have been suspended for accessing the confidential file and then leaking it," Malay Neerav, DU joint dean of students's welfare and media coordinator, told reporters.

"These are officials below section officer level," he said.

DU took the action after a Hindi daily published the leaked documents. The daily had written that Irani had taken admission in DU's School of Open Learning last year, but had not appeared for her examination.

Irani is in the center of a controversy due to her educational qualifications that has led to a full-blown war of words between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The Congress had alleged that Irani had misrepresented facts in her election affidavits.

The Congress leaders have said that Irani in her affidavit -- when she was contesting the 2004 Lok Sabha election -- mentioned her qualification as bachelor of arts (BA) which she passed in 1996 from Delhi University's school of correspondence.

But in her affidavit for this year's Lok Sabha election, the actor-turned-politician mentioned her educational qualification as "Bachelor of Commerce Part I, School of Open Learning (Correspondence), University of Delhi - 1994."

The Congress has protested against an "undergraduate" being appointed the HRD minister.

The BJP countered it with questions about Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's academic background.

Irani has meanwhile said that "extraneous circumstances" were created by the opposition to divert her and requested the people to judge her on the basis of her work.