New Delhi, July 21: The charges of financial, administrative and academic impropriety against P. K. Abdul Aziz, Vice-Chancellor (VC), Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) has instigated Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry to order probe against Prof. Aziz.
HRD minister Kapil Sibal has confirmed the order.
However, according to the sources, the probe was ordered after Prof. Aziz failed to provide a satisfactory response to the show cause notice issued by the President, who is a visitor of AMU.
In fact, the section of Executive Council (EC) disputed the reply given by Prof. Aziz to the Presidents’ notice.
EC claimed that a meeting called by Prof. Aziz to respond to the Presidents’ notice did not come to any conclusion and, therefore, the reply to the allegations should be considered as that of the VC and not the EC.
EC members cited 20 cases in which Prof. Aziz has allegedly failed, based on the response given by Prof. Aziz to the President.
Prof. Aziz is also alleged to be facing an inquiry against him by the Kerala government for alleged financial bungling at Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT).
He has supposedly admitted in his reply to the President that there was a probe against him at the CUSAT but stated that the Kerala government had even dropped a few accusations against him.
Another allegation that Prof. Aziz is facing is that AMU has paid income tax for both – him and the AMU registrar.
In his reply to the President, Prof. Aziz admitted that the income tax was paid by AMU but claimed it was now a loan.
However, in an RTI reply, nothing was mentioned about the loan and there is no provision in AMU to provide loans to pay income tax.
Prof. Aziz, when accused for a poor academic record and plagiarism, replied that his academic record had nothing to do with his functioning as a VC.
He was also alleged for transferring Rs.8 crore of Provident Fund (PF) money from State Bank of India (SBI) to Shreyas Gramin Bank violating the law of AMU.
But Prof. Aziz asserted that he was given the authority by the EC to do so, whereas, a section of the EC said it was a false claim.
He has also been charged of having misused a large sum for refurbishing his house, and violating Traveling Allowance / Daily Allowance (TA/DA) and home travel concession rules.
But Prof. Aziz has either denied them or claimed precedence.
–Agencies–