The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) wrote to the Visva Bharati authorities seeking some documents to probe into the alleged irregularities in the appointment of two officials. The letter was sent to authorities of the university on Tuesday. It is learnt that the authorities had assured all
help to the investigating agency to probe into the incident. Sources said that the irregularities were related to the appointment of a senior official of Rabindra Bhavan and another of Sangeet Bhavan.
The CBI officers may question some officials of Visva Bharati after going through the documents.
It may be mentioned that on May 24, CBI officers had conducted search operations at nine different places in Shantiniketan, Kolkata and Bhubaneswar while probing into the allegation of violation of norms by former Vice-Chancellor Sushanta Dattagupta in appointing a deputy registrar. The officers had searched the varsity’s offices, and the residences of Dattagupta and other officials who were his associates.
CBI officers on Thursday conducted the search operation to get relevant information and documents related to the case. They had searched Rabindra Bhavan, Central Bhavan and the new Central Bhavan in Shantiniketan. One of the groups had also searched the residence of Dattagupta.
CBI had registered a case against Dattagupta and other offcials – including the then registrar, finance officer and deputy registrar. A case was started against them under section 120B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), based on the allegation that they had entered into a criminal conspiracy to appoint Shyamala Ray Nair as a deputy registrar by violating the rules set by the University Grants Commission. Allegations were raised that the deputy registrar was appointed despite her not having the required educational qualification.