College principal in the dock

Court issued summons after a professor lodged complaints of embezzlement and corruption

Another victory for RTI it seems. Principal Suresh C Sharma of Motilal Nehru college (Eve.) who had earlier been charged for a scam of Rs 58,42,140 on various counts has landed in trouble again. An associate professor of Economics at the same college who had filed a criminal complaint against Suresh Sharma based on several RTI appeals has moved court to freeze all his retirement benefits as the principal is set to vacate his post at the end of this month. Now a court has issued a summon to Suresh Sharma.

Prof PK Sharma alleged that the accused principal has embezzled students society fund (Rs 5,49,437), development fund (Rs 8,44,971)u00a0 obtained pecuniary advantage to illegal appointees (Rs 17,93,837) claimed false LTC (Rs 1,99,768), granted civil contracts violating GFR no. 126 (4) and 132 (IV) (Rs 23,84,257) and collected fraudulent TA (Rs 79,870).

Prof PK Sharma says he tried to expose this fraud in the year 2003 when he first approached the anti-corruption bureau. His attempt was to expose the illegal appointments made by the principal. Since then Prof Sharma has been fighting for seven years against the corruption in his college. "I filed various RTIs and got the corruption figure which was used by the principal for his self interest.

He is now retiring at the end of this month and someone with such tainted background should be penalised and his retirement benefits should be frozen. So I have moved court. It is shocking that someone with criminal cases against him is enjoying all government facilities," he said.

"When principal Suresh C Sharma realised that I was taking steps to expose his corrupt practices, he started threatening me. He gave me threat calls and even called at my home. In this regard I got a complaint registered against him at a police station in Gurgaon on March 28, 2008. But it is so surprising that instead of taking step against him the college governing body is building pressure on me to withdraw the case," he added.
Prof PK Sharma filed a mandatory injunction sit against Suresh Sharma on March 29 and the court then issued a summon to the accused principal. The next hearing of the case is on April 24.

MiD Day tried to contact Principal Suresh C Sharma, but he could not be reached. One of the office staff who received the call refuted all the corruption charges against him but he did not disclose his identity.