It was alleged that the University was involved in illegal activities through the act of awarding fake Ph.D degrees that came at a hefty price to the students of the University.Ever since then, the Chancellor of the University, Chandra Mohan Jha, has fled the roost and is yet to be found by the police of Meghalaya. The matter had lain dormant for a while, with no developments after the arrest of a few authorities of the University. However, in a recent turn of events the CID sleuths who had been working on the case had recently uncovered a cache of theses from the premises of the CMJ University in Shillong and the CMJ campus situated at Jorabad worth around 120 crores, which had again awoken the case from its dormant state.

It was reported in a section of the local print media of Shillong, that the CID sleuths who had been working on the CMJ University scandal case, had recently during their investigation discover around 4000 theses that had been stored in a secured room in the CMJ office situated at Shillong. It was also informed that around 6000 printed theses had also been uncovered in the CMJ campus situated at Jorabad. As per information present on the website of the University, a student has to shell out around 1.27 lakhs, to pursue a Ph.D programme under the University. Officers who were assigned to theinvestigation were baffled while going through the various theses which contained top-end topics from ‘intelligence of a Kho Kho player’ to ‘marketing low cholesterol oil in India’. However, there were topics like ‘Corruption in India- hurdles and remedies’ by S. Venkata Lakhshmi and another thesis whose cover had been entitled ‘Role of ICICI bank in housing finance- a case NCR’ by Shiek Rafik Afsar while the inside page was titled ‘A study of emotional intelligence and self concept of Kho Kho players and non-Kho Kho players’ by Amit Naru whose papers were administered by Anurag Agnhotri, Assistant Professor, CVS College, Delhi University, that had stood out from the rest while the officers were going through the various theses that had been uncovered.

An Officer of the CID had also discovered that these theses were printed in Kolkata, and said that they had to investigate who ordered these theses to be printed at the printing press. Evidently, he had come to the conclusion that there is more to this case than meets the eye and might be just a part of a much bigger scam.

On another note, Deputy Chief Minister of Meghalaya in charge of Education, Shri R. C. Laloo told reporters on the sidelines of a Cabinet Meeting of the Meghalaya Government that was held on 26th July, 2013, that the State Government had issued a show cause notice to CMJ University, asking its authorities to show why the University should not be closed down. Professor Laloo also stated that the University was yet to reply to the show cause notice of the Government. He said that he was unsure of the time period granted to the University to reply to the notice but the University has been given ample amount of time to reply as per the provisions laid down in the CMJ University Act, 2009.

If the university had illegal-intentions to sell and dole out degrees then these theses would have not been submitted and hence ‘found’, as it would have been more easier to hand out degrees by the University without any academic record to show for it

Recently, the case of the CMJ University was presented to the Supreme Court, however, due to the lack of a standing counsel present in the court, this had resulted in the Supreme Court to rule in favour of Chandra Mohan Jha. As a result, Chandra Mohan Jha was grant anticipatory bail.  Sources say that the absence of a standing counsel in the Supreme Court had made it easy for Jha to obtain the anticipatory bail. It was reported that earlier, senior counsel Ranjan Mukherjee used to represent Meghalaya as its standing counsel, but was later learned that the State does not have a standing counsel in the Supreme Court.

It was on the 19th of July, 2013, that the order passed by the Meghalaya High Court for a non-bailable warrant of arrest with regards to an FIR in the CID case No. 2 (4) of 2013 under sections 420, 406/460 IPC in the Supreme Court was contested by the Chancellor of CMJ University represented by his counsels and he had pleaded for anticipatory bail. The Supreme Court had then proceeded by first of all passing an interim ex-parte order to the Meghalaya Government and also to allow Jha to get anticipatory bail in the event that he is arrested. The Supreme Court had granted the interim order after admitting the Special Leave Petition against the order of the Meghalaya High Court on May 16, 2013.

In response to all the accusations that had been levied upon him, the Chancellor of CMJ University Chandra Mohan Jha retaliated in a letter that had been sent to Deputy Chief Minister in charge of Education, Shri R. C. Laloo in which he tried to justify himself and shoot down all the allegations put forth by the CID officials working on the case. Chandra Mohan Jha, had first started off by stating that the theses discovered were not fake and that it was to be expected since every student had to submit a minimum of 7-10 copies of theses during his/her pursuit of a Ph.D. degree. He also said that the police claiming that the theses are worth a whooping 120 crores is “laughable” as they have only multiplied the number of theses found with the fees charged by the University for Ph.D.

Secondly, he further wrote saying that the terming of these theses as ‘fake’ by the police bewildered him. He questioned Shri. R. C. Laloo whether the educational scenario of Meghalaya has become so dismal that the police could now decide and comment on the quality and caliber of the research work of hundreds of Ph.D. scholars. He stated that the submission of these theses is but a small step in the attainment of a Ph.D. degree and that therefore no one should jump into the erroneous conclusion that submission of these theses would lead to the awarding of a Ph.D. degree. He also stated that the massive number of theses found in the university premises both in Shillong and Jorabad only displays the proper procedure being followed by the University as laid down by the University Grant Commission (UGC). He said if the university had illegal-intentions to sell and dole out degrees then these theses would have not been submitted and hence ‘found’, as it would have been more easier to hand out degrees by the University without any academic record to show for it.

Due to the lack of a standing counsel present in the court, this had resulted in the Supreme Court to rule in favour of Chandra Mohan Jha. As a result, Chandra Mohan Jha was grant anticipatory bail.

On another note, he also alleged that all these actions taken by the police such as the discovery of the so-called fake theses are all just a desperate ploy to keep the case alive, to further create doubt and suspicion in the minds of the people and to unfairly influence decision makers. He also stated that that it was rather odd that it took the police all this time to ‘find’ this cache of theses even as the investigations on the case had started three months back.

In light of all these events and developments, it is clear that all is not as it seems with the CMJ case and its investigations. There are too many loopholes being taken advantage of and also there are too many ‘convenient’ lapses happening at key moments. Whatever lies under all the subterfuge, it is clear that there are many more chapters yet to be unfolded in this saga of deceit and manipulation.

EP Desk