6 works under scanner for plagiarism at Hampi varsity

There seems to be renewed focus on six old cases of plagiarism, following the recent controversy over a fresh case involving Dr S S Angadi, pertaining to his thesis ‘Dasa sahitya bhashe,’ at the Kannada University, Hampi.

A recent meeting of the Syndicate, chaired by in-charge vice-chancellor Hanumanna Nayaka Dore, has ordered a probe by a sub-committee into four works and two PhD theses that face charges of plagiarism.

Registrar Prof Vijay Poonacha Tambanda will head the sub-committee. Syndicate member Sadhana Tantri, deans Dr K M Metri and Dr Mohan Kuntar are the other members of the sub-committee.

Prof K Premkumar - who is now with the Karnataka Folk University and who was earlier assistant registrar at the Kannada University - is one of those accused of plagiarism.

He has been charged with lifting more than 150 pages for his PhD thesis from ‘Rathamusala’ of Ramachandradeva, ‘Shakespeare and Kannada literature’ authored by P P Ashok and compiled by G S Shivarudrappa and ‘Shakespeare ge Namaskara’ by Sha Balurao, for his PhD thesis ‘Kannada translations of Shakespeare’s tragic plays’.

Dr Chinnaswamy Sosale, an assistant professor in the university, has also been accused of copying from another work for ‘Charitre Vishwakosha’ for the chapter on Roman empire from the work ‘Brief history of the world’s civilisations’ by K Padmavathamma.

Dr Nagamani Sosale - wife of Chinnaswamy Sosale - is said to have copied verbatim the PhD thesis by Dr Uddandaiah for her PhD thesis ‘Conversions in modern Kannada literature’.

Dr H D Prashant, assistant professor of research wing, has been accused of plagiarising from ‘Primary education in Karnataka’ by Dr T R Chandrashekar for his article on school education. Dr Vittalrao Gaekwad, another professor, is said to have lifted pages from the writings of Pradhan Gurudutt for his work ‘Kannada in administration’.

Dr L Srinivas, yet another professor, is accused of lifting portions from ‘Tribal settlements in Koppal and Hampi regions’ by Dr Sharanabasappa Kolkar for his work ‘Tribal cultural settlements in Hampi surroundings’.