UP college students clear exam with 'Jai Shri Ram' on answer sheets, two professors suspended

Two professors of a state-run university here have been suspended after an RTI response revealed that four students allegedly cleared exams with 56 per cent after writing ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and names of Indian team cricketers as part of several answers.

Dr Vandana Singh, Vice-chancellor of Veer Bahadur Singh Purvanchal University, said the varsity’s examination committee convened a meeting over the matter on Wednesday and found two teachers — Dr Ashutosh Gupta and Dr Vinay Verma — guilty of wrong evaluation.

A decision has been taken to take disciplinary action relieving them of their duties and it will be presented before the Executive Council for a final decision, the VC said.

An investigation into the allegation over the professors extorting money from the four first-year students is underway, she added.

The matter come to light when Divyanshu Singh, a former student of the university, sought information under the Right to Information Act after coming to know about some students of first and second semester of the D Pharma course were passed in a test despite writing wrong answers.

Singh said he had filed the RTI on August 3, 2023 and also demanded re-evaluation of the answer sheets of the particular students.

According to the RTI response, the students had written ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and names of several Indian cricketers such as Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Hardik Pandya in the middle of their answers, Singh said. The students scored 42 marks out of 75, which is 56 per cent, he added.

With these facts emerging in the RTI response, the former student wrote a letter to Raj Bhavan, alleging that a professor had passed the students by taking money.

Singh had also sent the complaints along with affidavits to the Raj Bhavan, taking cognisance of which the LG’s office had ordered investigation and action on December 21, 2023, he said.

On this, the university had set up an inquiry committee to probe the matter. A re-evaluation by two external examiners was conducted in which the four students scored zero.

The inquiry committee in its report to the varsity’s vice-chancellor held the two teachers guilty, he said. A meeting was held on Wednesday and the two professors were suspended.