GU paper leak report with govt, prof’s suicide bid foiled

Panaji/Margao: Chief minister Pramod Sawant on Thursday said that state govt has received the report in the Goa University paper leak case from the Justice RMS Khandeparkar committee.

Assistant professor Pranav Naik, who is allegedly involved in the case, was rescued the same day by police while attempting to end his life in Canacona.Sawant said on Thursday that the inquiry in the case by the three-member panel instituted by state govt was completed and the report will be forwarded to the state education secretary to decide on the course of action.On Thursday morning, Naik’s family filed a missing person’s complaint with Mapusa police.

He was spotted trying to jump off the Sadolxem bridge in Canacona on Thursday evening. On being alerted, Canacona police rushed there and rescued him moments before he would have plunged into the water.“A police team is currently escorting him to Mapusa,” Canacona PI Harish Raut Dessai said late on Thursday.Naik is an assistant professor in the physics department at Goa University, who was suspended in the paper leak matter.

Sources said the report found that he held the duplicate keys to the cabin of a senior faculty member for years.The report also found that the dean and two other faculty members did not lodge a formal complaint in the matter even after learning that Naik was in possession of the duplicate keys, sources said.Further, the report stated, according to sources, that the GU vice-chancellor in his explanation to the committee said the environment at the university is ‘informal’.However, the committee passed strictures against the faculty member, the dean, and the university administration for not formally pursuing the issue of breach of security.The matter came to light in March this year based on allegations from a group of activists led by Kashinath Shetye. An FIR was registered against Naik at the Agasaim police station based on the activists’ complaint. The FIR said the security in the assessment of the examination was breached “towards one specific woman student thereby cheating other students”.“Accused person namely Pranav Naik, assistant professor, physics department, made duplicate keys of the cabins of multiple faculty members without their consent and unlawfully entered certain faculty cabins without permission, thereby breaching the privacy and security of other members,” the FIR said.