Academic appointments at NDA comes under CBI lens

The CBI has registered a case against the Principal of Pune-based National Defence Academy (NDA) and four other employees of the institute, including a professor, on charges of irregularities in the appointment of teaching faculty to the organisation's different posts, the agency said on Wednesday.

Separate Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) teams on Wednesday conducted raids at multiple locations, including residences and official premises of the accused persons, in Pune, Maharashtra.

Besides NDA's Principal Omprakash Shukla, a Political Science professor, two assistant professors of Chemistry and Mathematics, a head of department of Chemistry and other unidentified persons have been named in the CBI FIR that was lodged on Tuesday following a complaint of malpractices in the recruitment process of teaching faculty in the academy.

"We registered the FIR based on a complaint about irregularities in the selection/ appointment to different posts of teaching faculty in NDA," a CBI official said.

The appointment of civilian academic officers, including principal, vice principal, professor and assistant professor at the NDA, is done through the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).

The UPSC publishes an advertisement inviting applications in which qualification criteria are listed. Two important criteria are Academic Performance Indicator (API) points and academic experience.

At least 15 such appointments have been made since 2007, sources said.

--IANS

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