Suspens the director accused of graft or send it on long leave: Center to IIM Rohtak

The Ministry of Education on Thursday asked the Council of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Rohtak, or suspend the director of the Institute, Dheeraj Sharma, or send it on leave until the probe is completed for the alleged departure. The Ministry’s Directive also instructs him to stay away from all the campuses and rented areas in IIM-Rohtak, to other orders.

The center ordered on March 5 a probe in the charges against Dr. Sharma.

In a letter to Jai Dev Shroff, the chairman of the Board of Directors, Iim Rohtak, Sunil Kumar Biswas, deputy secretary of the Union Government (Ministry of Education), indicated that the IIM, Rohtak Council, postpone all objects, except for the convening and granting the degrees, until the ongoing investigation.

“The director, Iim-Rohtak, can be sent on a long/held leave until the investigation is completed and can be trained to stay outside all campuses, the rented area of ​​IIM, Rohtak to other orders. The director’s accusation, Iim Rohtak, can be taught to other faculties, who have not been associated with the financial problems of the Institute so far ”, the order shows.

The order said in addition: “For the 63rd March 173rd meeting, it was found that a proposal was granted for the re-monitoring of Kansal as a member of the IIM Board of Directors. The decision of the Board of Directors was annulled, as it was made contravention of section 4 (1) (a) of the IIM 2018 rules, as amended in November 2023, which stipulates that the BOG Nomination Committee must have candidate for visitors as one of the members of the Committee. ”

In March, President Droupadi Murmu, in his capacity as a “visitor of the Institute”, who holds powers in this regard, launched an investigation into “diverting public funds” and granted three months IIM Mumbai, Professor, Manoj Tiwari, to complete the probe and send a report to the center. The center in February requested the president’s approval for such an investigation.

Statements that he received the second division in license

The probe is mainly in the mandate of Sharma, which started in 2017. Sharma also faces statements that the license diploma is in the second division, while the requirement for the director was from the first division.

His first term as director of IIM-Rohtak ended on February 9, 2022, and in the same year, he obtained a second term on February 28. In the petition deposited in 2019 by an Amitava Chaudary, his appointment was challenged.

According to the accusations, at the time of appointment, he hid the fact that the license diploma was in the second division, while the requirement for the same division was from the first division. The Government acknowledged the leak in 2022 and I was issued a notification, seeking an explanation about why the necessary administrative actions should not be taken against it for “deliberately hiding material information” about its academic qualification at the time of its appointment.

Claims on Institute’s tax health swelling

The order, issued on March 5, reads that an investigation carried out by the main controller chief of accounts, the Ministry of Education, found “serious irregularities and serious diversion of public funds at the Institute”. These include the wrong inflation of the institute’s financial health and the use of such manipulated figures to pay for a huge variable salary (more than ₹1 crore for each year) to the director (Sharma) for the years 2018-19.

In addition, it is said that the general financial rules-2017 have been violated in the management of finance and purchases at the Institute and in Gift Phones and other inductions to people without names. The order also read that Sharma was the director in the mentioned period and his license certificate was repeatedly searched during his first term in 2017-2022, but was not sent by the Institute until the end of his mandate.

The investigation officer was requested to probe the commission and omitting documents regarding various irregularities, the method of storing and verifying the certificates of academic degree and other certificates of director, other members of the faculty, officials and procedure followed and the decision makers involved in sending, withholding the answers to the issues. The investigation officer was asked to emphasize Lapsuri and suggest remedial measures to avoid repeating similar situations in the future.