The Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) of Telangana police raided the residence of Telangana University Vice Chancellor, Dachepalli Ravinder in Tarnaka and recovered ₹50,000 that he allegedly accepted as a bribe for extending an official favour.
The tainted amount was recovered from the almirah of his bedroom in the presence of mediators and a chemical test yielded positive result, said T. Sudharshan DSP, who led the raid. The ACB said the Vice Chancellor demanded ₹50,000 from the complainant Dasari Shankar for doing an official favour — alloting exam centre to the complainant’s college at Bheemgal for the year 2022-23.
Police said searches are on at two more places and the Vice Chancellor will be arrested after the searches and remanded.
Prof. Ravinder is at loggerheads with the Government over the appointment of the Registrar of the University. He appointed a senior professor without the approval of the Executive Council, which rejected the appointment and appointed another senior professor for the post. However, Prof. Ravinder did not accept. When the EC-appointed Registrar went to join his office was locked apparently at the instance of the Vice Chancellor.
There were several allegations of corruption and irregularities against the Vice Chancellor over the appointment of outsourced employees in the varsity. The appointments were made without following guidelines and in excess of the need and the varsity was losing large amount of money due to it.
In the month of April this year, the Executive Council constituted a committee to investigate the appointment of 175 people made by the Vice Chancellor over the last two years. While discussing the corruption, the EC replaced the Registrar appointed by the V-C and an enraged Prof. Ravinder walked out of the meeting.
Instead of following the EC orders, the Vice Chancellor moved the Court claiming he had absolute power over appointments and also alleging the interference of Commissioner of Collegiate Education, Navin Mittal and sought relief from the intervention in the decisions made by him.
Even as this tussle continued the academic atmosphere on the campus turned worse with students and staff divided. The outsourced employees whose salaries were stopped also staged protests. Later, the ACB officials also searched the V-C’s office and took away some files after questioning the employees.
First V-C to be in ACB trap
Prof. Ravinder is the first Vice Chancellor in Telangana and also when the State was part of Andhra Pradesh to have been trapped by the ACB sleuths. A senior official said that he would also be the first V-C to be suspended as the ACB will seek his remand. Once remanded the government would issue his suspension orders, he said.
