On Wednesday, a leading newspaper, carried a ‘duplicate copy’ of what it said was the Prime Minister’s Masters degree certificate.
Also Read | More contradictions emerge on PM Modi’s degree
The paper, Times of India, also reported that the PMO was unhappy over the CIC M Sridhar Acharyulu’s decision to order the Gujarat and Delhi Universities to make degrees of Modi available to Delhi chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal.
However, just like Modi’s enrollment document earlier leaked by Gujarat University, his reported Masters degree too has come under scanner for anomalies.
Ahmedabad-based RTI activist, Roshan Shah, said that the new purported certificate had thickened the plot.
He said, ” It is a duplicate certificate. RTI means you should be given copy of the original. It says verified which means GU has copy of his certificate. Modi’s major is “ENTIRE POLITICAL SCIENCE” – probably the only university in the world to use word ENTIRE before a major. His father’s name is DAMODERDAS and not DAMODARDAS. This is 4th incarnation of Modi after original one, one with date of birth, one who went concurrently in 1967 to Himalayas while doing pre-science at M N College and this one with different middle name.
“Also the certificate has date of 01.04.2016 – April Fool’s date. The question is that the CIC did not order any copy of certificate before 01.04.2016 and University in the past refused RTI Activists to give them copy of his certificates. So who requested a duplicate certificate from Gujarat University and who approved it? The plot has thickened now.”
The Gujarat University last week had also allegedly leaked Modi’s enrollment document, which had shown the prime minister’s date of birth wrong showing him a year older than his official age.
Activists have also pointed out how the VC, whose signature appears on Modi’s certificate was once arrested along with his son for forgery and other corruption charges.
According to a PTI report in November 2003, both Shashtri and his son arrested on alleged charges of corruption, forgery and cheating, police said on Sunday.
“Gujarat University’s former vice chancellor K S Shastri and his son Pragnesh Shastri were arrested around midnight following complaints that he used to charge fees excess than that prescribed by the state government and the University Grants Commission, from students studying in the Somlalit Institute of Management Studies (SLIMS),” Deputy Commissioner of Police (zone 1) Ajay Tomar had told PTI.
“The former vice chancellor has been booked under sections of forgery, cheating and Prevention of Corruption Act and further investigation is being conducted,” the DCP was quoted as saying.
The arrest of Shastri was significant after the incumbent vice chancellor A U Patel blew the whistle on a major marksheet printing scam involving the long serving registrar M P Jadia and controller of exams Satish Bhatt last month.
The other signatory on Modi’s MA degree, Minesh Shah, too was booked for fraud in 2012.
In 2012, as reported by Indian Express, the complainant Pradeep Prajapati, a suspended professor of the university, had alleged that Gujarat University Vice-Chancellor Dr Parimal Trivedi in connivance with university’s in-charge registrar Minesh Shah and development officer Vaishali Padhiyar siphoned off crores of rupees of the varsity.
Trivedi and three others were later booked under various sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC) including 409 (breach of trust by public servant), 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery) among others.
One RTI activist told www.jantakareporter.com that the administration was desperately trying to cover up, which was causing more damage to prime minister’s reputation.
He pointed out that the Wikipedia Gujarat University page did not list Modi as alumni up until February 2015.