Asst prof exam: Prof Nagaraja arrested, but no action taken yet

Three days have passed by since the arrest of Prof H Nagaraja, registrar (evaluation) of Karnatak University, Dharwad (KUD), in connection with the alleged question paper leak in the recruitment examination for assistant professors’ posts, but the government is yet to take any action against him.

As per norms, any government employee who remains in police custody for more than 48 hours should be suspended from his or her post. Prof Nagaraja was arrested by the police on April 29.

Officials from KUD confirmed to DH that they had written to the higher education department seeking clarity on the matter. But till date, no reply has been received.

Prof K R Gudasi, vice chancellor of KUD, said, “As he was posted by the government as registrar-evaluation, we cannot initiate action. We have written to the government about the same, but have not received any response.”

The authorities of the University of Mysore (UoM) said they cannot initiate action now as Prof Nagaraja has been sent by the government to another university on deputation.

Prof Hemanth Kumar, vice chancellor of UoM, told DH, “He is not our university employee now as he has been deputed to another university by the government. If he is relieved from that university and is sent back to our university, we will place the matter before the syndicate and take immediate action.”

Prof Kumar said the university has taken action against Sowmya, a research scholar at the university, who has been arrested in the same case.

“She had applied for fellowship and we have written to the union government to keep it on hold,” he added.

Officials of the higher education department were not available for
comments.

The geography question paper for recruitment of assistant professors to government degree colleges held on March 14 was allegedly leaked a few hours before the examination commenced, on social media platforms.

Some of the candidates filed a complaint before the Karnataka Examinations Authority about the same with evidence. It was then forwarded to the jurisdictional police for inquiry.

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