Panel to probe 'irregularities' by Visva Bharati VC

The human resource development ministry Wednesday set up a panel to probe allegations of financial and administrative irregularities against Visva Bharati University vice chancellor Sushanta Datta Gupta.

In a memorandum by the ministry, it was said that the decision to set up a three-member fact finding committee was taken after receiving complaints of alleged financial and administrative irregularities in day-to-day functioning of the university.

"After due consideration, (the ministry) has decided to constitute a three-member committee for conducting a fact finding inquiry into all the allegations levelled in the complaints and submit a report to the central government preferably by March 31," said the office memorandum signed by the deputy secretary.

The committee comprises former Allahabad High Court judge Sakharam Singh Yadav, Sri Aurobindo Institute of Indian Culture (Shillong) chairman B.B. Dutta and South Asian Archaeology of Cambridge University professor Dilip Chakrabarti.

The probe panel comes in the wake of a section of teachers and students agitating demanding Datta Gupta's removal for his "autocratic style" of functioning.

Datta Gupta's name was considered for the Padma Shri in 2014 but he was not given the honour after the West Bengal Commission for Women objected to it over allegations of sexual harassment against him in the past.

As the then director of the Satyendra Nath Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Datta Gupta in 2005 was accused of sexually harassing a female scientist.

He has repeatedly denied the allegations.