IIT-Patna director charged in Coalnet scam
IIT-Patna director A K Bhowmick was served a chargesheet by
IIT-Kharagpur last week for his involvement in the Coalnet scam.
Bhowmick's five-year term in IIT-Patna ends in May next year.
R N Banerjee, professor of industrial engineering and management in IIT-Kharagpur has also been chargesheeted for the scam. This is the first time that the director of an IIT has been chargesheeted on the recommendations of CBI. P P Chakraborty, who was also named by the CBI, has since been appointed director of IIT-Kharagpur after the explanation offered by him was accepted by the HRD ministry and the Central Vigilance Commission.
Sources in the HRD ministry said, "The chargesheet raises serious questions about the way Bhowmick was appointed as director of IIT-Patna without any vigilance clearance from the ministry's vigilance wing."
In 2001, Coal India Ltd had awarded a contract to IIT-Kharagpur for implementation and training of a software called Coalnet. The award was for Rs 8.9 crore and the contract required IIT to maintain confidentiality of the data and not to outsource the job further.
But the institute sub-contracted the job to a company run by an IIT-Kharagpur alumnus, TCG Software Pvt Ltd. It did exactly the same, again in violation of norms, with the second phase of the project which was worth Rs 18.8 crore.
In its chargesheet to Bhowmick, IIT-Kharagpur said he as dean of Sponsored Research and Industrial Consultancy outsourced the work given to the institute by Coal India Limited despite the condition that "all documents received from CIL for study will be treated as confidential and not to be divulged to any third party" without the approval of CIL.
Bhowmick is also charged with being in touch with TCG Software, the company to which the work was outsourced, even before CIL gave the work to IIT-Kharagpur. He is also accused of making back-to-back payments to TCG Software.
Banerjee is accused of misrepresenting to CIL that the work was not outsourced and that IIT had only hired resources from TCG Software. The chargesheet says Banerjee was part of negotiations with TCG Software and later gave wrong information to CIL about cancellation of outsourced work.
As for how Bhowmick got appointed as director, it has now emerged that then director of IIT-Kharagpur Damodar Acharya had informed the technical education bureau of the HRD ministry that there was no case pending against him. This was surprising since a few months earlier, Acharya had written to B Muthuraman, the then chairman of the board of governors, IIT-Kharagpur, seeking his approval to initiate departmental proceedings against Bhowmick.
HRD's technical education bureau took Acharya's word as final and without consulting the ministry's vigilance wing, sent his name to the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet for approval.
R N Banerjee, professor of industrial engineering and management in IIT-Kharagpur has also been chargesheeted for the scam. This is the first time that the director of an IIT has been chargesheeted on the recommendations of CBI. P P Chakraborty, who was also named by the CBI, has since been appointed director of IIT-Kharagpur after the explanation offered by him was accepted by the HRD ministry and the Central Vigilance Commission.
Sources in the HRD ministry said, "The chargesheet raises serious questions about the way Bhowmick was appointed as director of IIT-Patna without any vigilance clearance from the ministry's vigilance wing."
In 2001, Coal India Ltd had awarded a contract to IIT-Kharagpur for implementation and training of a software called Coalnet. The award was for Rs 8.9 crore and the contract required IIT to maintain confidentiality of the data and not to outsource the job further.
But the institute sub-contracted the job to a company run by an IIT-Kharagpur alumnus, TCG Software Pvt Ltd. It did exactly the same, again in violation of norms, with the second phase of the project which was worth Rs 18.8 crore.
In its chargesheet to Bhowmick, IIT-Kharagpur said he as dean of Sponsored Research and Industrial Consultancy outsourced the work given to the institute by Coal India Limited despite the condition that "all documents received from CIL for study will be treated as confidential and not to be divulged to any third party" without the approval of CIL.
Bhowmick is also charged with being in touch with TCG Software, the company to which the work was outsourced, even before CIL gave the work to IIT-Kharagpur. He is also accused of making back-to-back payments to TCG Software.
Banerjee is accused of misrepresenting to CIL that the work was not outsourced and that IIT had only hired resources from TCG Software. The chargesheet says Banerjee was part of negotiations with TCG Software and later gave wrong information to CIL about cancellation of outsourced work.
As for how Bhowmick got appointed as director, it has now emerged that then director of IIT-Kharagpur Damodar Acharya had informed the technical education bureau of the HRD ministry that there was no case pending against him. This was surprising since a few months earlier, Acharya had written to B Muthuraman, the then chairman of the board of governors, IIT-Kharagpur, seeking his approval to initiate departmental proceedings against Bhowmick.
HRD's technical education bureau took Acharya's word as final and without consulting the ministry's vigilance wing, sent his name to the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet for approval.
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