After 13 years, college says professor’s degree fake

St Xavier’s Technical Institute’s complaint states original BE mark sheets were tampered with; teacher has been unreachable since January this year.

The St Xavier’s Technical Institute, Mahim, a wellknown institution in the city for technical courses, has filed a police complaint against a lecturer working there for the past 13 years for allegedly submitting fake mark sheets at the time of appointment.

The institute’s principal, Dr Shivaji B Ghungrad, submitted a statement to the police alleging that Manish Khobragade, a lecturer at the institute, gave mark sheets for Bachelorof Engineering (BE) from Swami Ramanand Teerth Marathwada University (SRTMU), which were found to have been tampered with during an official verification

The institute’s governing body decided to file a case against the teacher after the institute received no clarification from Khobragade after multiple reminders and a waiting period of eight months.

Ghungrad said in his complaint that Khobragade had been unreachable since January this year. Mirror did not get any response to calls made to Khobragade available with the institute and to messages on social media and email.

The Mahim police on Friday registered an FIR under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code for forgery and cheating. “The documents are forged as per the complainant and we have taken all the relevant documents for further probe,” a police officer said.

Khobragade joined the institute as lecturer on March 8, 2006. As per his application for the post of lecturer in 2005, he completed his BE on August 10, 2002, from SRTMU. While examining his record of 13 years, Ghungrad found that he had taken unpaid leave of 340 days in his 13 years of service.

According to his complaint, he asked Khobragade for his original documents of educational qualifications, but he avoided submitting and cited family commitments and illness as the reasons for taking additional leave.

The complaint cites a report from SRTMU dated December 17, 2018, submitted to the institute, which states that the original mark sheets of second, third and final year, which Khobragade gave to the university as part of the verification process, were found to be tampered with.

“He was working as a lecturer in our college. Recently he had complained to me that he was up for a promotion. I then told him to submit the original documents. He has not only cheated the institute, but also played with the future of students,” Ghungrad said.

“However, he did not submit the documents, and that made us suspicious. After some days, he submitted the documents, which we sent to the concerned university for verification. The university replied that there was no such candidate and the mark sheet was forged. He has not reported for duty for the past sixseven months. He has disconnected all his numbers and has become incommunicado.”

The complaint cites other discrepancies, such as in the character certificate submitted by Khobragade, the term ‘TE’ (third year of engineering) has been changed to ‘BE’ (bachelor of engineering).

Khobragade also avoided submitting his originals during an assessment process by the Directorate of Technical Education and the All India Council for Technical Education. The institute also pointed out that Khobragade had not submitted experience certificates at the time of his appointment despite citing work experience of six years and one month in his application. “This suggests that he was employed at the time of completing his degree or that his work experience is false,” the complaint states.

Khobragade’s social media profile states: “Worked at St Xavier’s Technical Institute.” It also states he studied at the same institute. There is no mention of SRTMU. The principal’s complaint also said there were nearly 200 complaints from students against him expressing dissatisfaction with his teachingand that Khobragade had made complaints against the institute in the past.

The institute has started his termination process.

Source: IndiaTimes