JNU Professor Rajeev Sijariya (image:jnu.ac.in/)
New Delhi: The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) administration on Monday suspended professor Rajeev Sijariya, who recently arrested in a NAAC Accreditation Bribery Case. The case was in connection with the allegations of bribery for a favourable A++ NAAC accreditation rating to Koneru Lakshmaiah Education Foundation (KLEF), a deemed-to be university in Vaddeswaram, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh.
The CBI on Saturday has arrested the chairman and six members of a National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) inspection committee, including Sijariya. The arrested members also include the vice chancellor of the KLEF and two more executives.
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The 14 accused were named in the FIR, which includes President of the KLEF in Andhra Pradesh’s Guntur Koneru Satyanarayana, NAAC former deputy adviser L Manjunatha Rao, professor and director (IQAC-NAAC), Bangalore University M Hanumanthappa, and NAAC adviser M S Shyamsundar.
As per the FIR, the university was allegedly told to pay a total of Rs 1.8 crore to the seven-member inspection team in return for more than 3.65 points and an A++ NAAC grading. However, after discussions, they agreed upon Rs 10 lakh for the chairman, Rs 3 lakh for each member, and additional bonuses such as a laptop and travel expenses for one member’s wife.
The FIR also states that the Sijariya negotiated the deal himself in which he has demanded crores, but later settled down for Rs 28 lakh.
In a statement, a CBI spokesperson said that the during the searches conducted by the probe agency, “alleged undue advantage paid to the NAAC inspection team members by the office bearers of said educational foundation, in the form of cash, gold, mobile phones and laptops” was recovered, Indian Express reports.
“An amount of Rs 37 lakh in cash, six Lenovo laptops, one iPhone 16 pro mobile phone and other incriminating articles have been recovered,” spokesperson added.
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Sijariya was appointed as the Dean at JNU’s Atal Bihari Vajpayee School of Management and Entrepreneurship in 2023. As per Indian Express report, Sijariya’s two-year tenure as Dean was cut short after several faculty members accused him of “undemocratic decision-making” and “instigating students against faculty members.” He joined JNU in 2020 and his academic qualifications include a PhD in Management, an MBA in Marketing and Human Resource Management, and an MSc in Physics (Electronics).
