CBI books former IGNOU VC

CBI sources said that soon after registering a case against V N Rajshekharan Pillai, the agency carried out the searches at his premises in Thiruvananthapuram and Kottayam from where some documents were recovered.

They said that during his tenure as IGNOU VC between 2006-11, Pillai had allegedly misused his official position to allow Sikkim Manipal University and Punjab Technical University to run distance learning courses, which was in violation of the laid down procedure.

CBI sources, without specifying the courses because it could have an adverse impact on the future of students, claimed the courses which Pillai had allowed as distance learning programmes could only have been run as regular classroom courses.

They said Pillai was not the competent authority to have granted permission to the two universities to run these programmes.

Sources said said Pillai has been booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act for alleged abuse of official position and criminal conspiracy.

They said the agency is still trying to figure out if any illegal gratification was taken by Pillai in return for granting them permission to run the courses.

Pillai had taken over as VC of IGNOU in 2006 and continued till October 20, 2011. By being the V-C, he was also the Chairman of the Distance Education Council(DEC) which monitors standards of all the Open Universities and distance education institutes in the country.