Two professors at Veer Bahadur Singh Purvanchal University in Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh, have been suspended after 18 first-year pharmacy students were awarded passing grades by writing slogans and cricketers’ names on their answer sheets.
An RTI request filed by Divyanshu Singh, a former student, revealed that students who wrote slogans like “Jai Shri Ram” and names of cricketers like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya, among others on their answer sheets, were inexplicably awarded passing grades or over 50 per cent marks.
Singh alleged that Professors Vinay Verma and Ashish Gupta accepted bribes to pass the students. He filed a formal complaint supported by an affidavit, submitting evidence to the state Governor.
Upon receiving the student’s complaint letter and affidavit, Raj Bhavan took action, ordering an investigation on December 21, 2023. The Raj Bhavan had written a letter to the Vice-Chancellor of the University and directed to take action in the matter.
Subsequently, an external evaluation revealed discrepancies for answers where the students were awarded zero and four marks, respectively.
In response, the university administration convened an enquiry committee. As a result, Dr Vinay Verma and Manish Gupta were suspended from the examination committee on Wednesday.
(With inputs from agencies)
