BENGALURU: Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot has appointed former High Court judge Justice R Gururajan to conduct a probe into allegations of misappropriation of funds by the administration of Kuvempu University, allocated by various departments under SCSP/TSP grants towards development work. He has also directed Gururajan to submit a detailed report within a month.

This is the second time a committee is being constituted to probe the same allegations. In June 2023, the higher education department had formed a committee headed by Ravindranath HB, a former judge of the district and sessions court in Shivamogga.

The panel had held that there was misuse of funds or grants released under the SCSP/TSP schemes, and reported that the then functioning officials, including former Vice Chancellor JN Veerabhadrappa, were collectively accountable for the anomaly.

Following this, the state government had requested the Governor cum Chancellor to initiate disciplinary action against those responsible, in accordance with Section 8 of the Karnataka State Universities Act, 2000.

The allegations included misappropriation of Rs 5 crore allotted by the state government and social welfare department’s SCSP/TSP grant of Rs 4.25 crore for setting up smart classes. The state government had received multiple complaints against the then Vice-Chancellor Prof BP Veerabhadrappa, Prof Geetha C, Dr YL Ramachandra, Shankarappa B for negligence and lack of integrity regarding the alleged misappropriation of funds released under the SCSP/TSP Programme.