Pune: Bogus Degree Racket Rocks Pune Municipal Corporation; Deputy Commissioner Along With Education Officer and Clerk Named in Complaint

Pune:
A shocking incident has come to light from Pune Municipal Corporation, where a racket of bogus degrees has been revealed. In this regard, a complaint has been lodged against the Deputy Commissioner of Pune Municipal Corporation, Somnath Haribhau Bankar, and a few other officials who aided him.

Social activist Sudhir Ramchandra Alhat (age 54, a resident of Tanajiwadi, Shivajinagar) has filed a complaint at Shivajinagar police station. This incident took place between January 1, 2008, and 2016 at the Pune Municipal Corporation office. In this regard, a complaint has been registered against Somnath Bankar, the then education officer Sudhakar Tambe, clerk Rajendra Ghare, and others. Notably, Somnath Bankar is currently appointed as Deputy Commissioner of the Encroachment Department.

As per the police complaint, Bankar was a rector of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar hostel in 2008. At that time he obtained a fake degree of MBA (HRM) from Sikkim Manipal University in the academic years 2008 and 2009 and recorded it in the service book. It was signed by the then Education Officer, Sudhakar Tambe.

To check the authenticity of the degree, the plaintiff had applied at the Sikkim Manipal University under the Right to Information Act. While responding to his query, the Sikkim Manipal University stated that no student named Somnath Bankar has taken the degree from the university and further said that this degree was fake.

Shockingly, even though Bankar’s MBA degree was proved to be fake, the Municipal Corporation neither investigated him nor initiated any complaint against him. Because of this, the questions are raised over the fair functioning of the municipal corporation.

After that, Shrihari Bahirat, Senior Police Inspector of the Crime Branch, after investigating Bankar, confirmed that the MBA degree of Somnath Bankar was bogus and gave a letter to the Pune Municipal Corporation on May 4, 2024, to file a case against him.

In this regard, the Anti-Corruption Bureau has also sent a confidential report to the Commissioner of Pune Municipal Corporation on April 21, 2018, stating that Bankar’s degree is fake. After this case has been exposed, the plaintiff has further alleged involvement of other senior officers in this alleged bogus degree racket scam. Alhat, in his list of suspected officials, requested the police department to investigate thoroughly in this case.