Karnataka withdraws appointment of BNU registrar

The state higher education department has withdrawn the appointment of Prof K Janardhanam, who is facing the allegation of misuse of funds, from the post of registrar (evaluation) of Bengaluru North University (BNU).

The decision comes close on the heels of the Halasuru Gate police registering an FIR based on the complaint filed by the officials of Bangalore Central University (BCU), where Prof Janardhanam was working as head of the Canara Bank School of Management Studies, and allegedly misused the students' fee.

Janardhanam, along with a staff of the institute, had allegedly deposited Rs 13,73,500 students' fee into their personal account.

Recently, following the decision at the syndicate meeting of BCU, officials had filed a complaint at the Halasuru Gate police station. The police had registered an FIR on Tuesday and on Thursday the department issued an order withdrawing the appointment of Janardhanam from the post of the registrar and sending him back to his parent department in Bangalore University until further order.

The university officials, before filing a complaint and placing the matter before the syndicate, had constituted an internal enquiry committee headed by registrar of BCU Prof Shivaram.

Prof Janardhanam and yet another staff had reportedly told the committee that they had the money in their accounts.

"Both of them had agreed that they had deposited the fee collected from students to their accounts. After the inquiry, the money was deposited to us in five instalments, and we have recovered the money. Now we have filed a complaint against these two people in the Halasuru Police station for misuse of university’s money by keeping it in their accounts," said Prof Shivaram.

Reacting to the incident, BNU vice-chancellor Prof TD Kempraju said: "As the government is the appointing authority, we will act as per the directions of the government."

When DH reached out to Prof Janardhanam for reaction, he said: "I have obtained a stay from the high court for the inquiry committee proceedings. Despite that, they filed complaint. I will file contempt against the authorities and challenge my involvement in this. Just to tarnish my image a few people are doing this."

What was the case?

MBA students had paid their fees through cash and through online mode payments to a clerk, who was working in the Canara Bank School of Management Studies in the university in 2018.

Janardhanam was the chairperson of the management school then, was handling all the courses. Later, Professor Janardhanam was transferred as the registrar of Bengaluru North University (BNU).

Following the complaints from students, the university constituted an inquiry committee.