Missing files; documents found from sealed almirah of University of Gour Banga

A number of important documents and files, which had gone missing, were found from a sealed almirah in the department of chemistry of the University of Gour Banga on Friday, Vice-Chancellor Swagata Sen said. The university authorities had lodged a police complaint last month after security guards caught a student of the chemistry department late at night on March 14 and it was found that he was carrying a file.

The student had claimed that head of the department, Prof Sougata Pal, had told him to take that file. Following this, an almirah of the department was sealed by the authorities. Pal was suspended on March 20 and asked not to come to the university.

The sealed almirah was opened on Friday and several documents and files, some of them reported missing earlier, were found inside, the vice-chancellor told reporters. The files found in the almirah contained documents of the finance department, the registrar's office, executive committee meetings and others, he said.

"How these documents reached the department is a mystery. A number of files required to probe certain incidents of corruption had gone missing earlier," Sen said. Pal, the accused professor, claimed that he was being framed.

"I had raised my voice against some of the wrong-doings in the university and am paying the price of that," he said.

(With inputs from agencies.)