Why did the VC of this university in Patna resign and what is the alleged corruption scam he alluded to?

Mohammad Quddus, Vice-Chancellor, Maulana Mazharul Haque Arabic and Persian University (MMHAPU) in Patna tendered his resignation on December 17. This comes after his struggle against alleged corruption at the institute.

It was on November 20 that the VC was in the news for writing a letter to Phagu Chauhan, Governor of Bihar, referring to the alleged scam in the university. He had stated that he is not in a position to continue as the VC under the present circumstances.

"The atmosphere of work is not good under the current circumstances. Hence, I am resigning from the post of VC of MMHAPU," Quddus said in his letter. He also wrote that the scam he was referring to had taken place during the tenure of Surendra Prasad Singh, the former VC, as per a report in IANS.

Quddus had penned not one but two letters on November 20 and then on December 9 to the Bihar Governor and the Principal Secretary in the Chief Minister's Office (CMO). Taking note of the matter, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar wrote to the Raj Bhawan and even dispatched the Education Minister to meet the governor.

READ ALSO : Reading 'stories' doesn't just make you smarter, it can make you feel empathy towards people from pretty much anywhere

In the letter addressed to the governor and CMO, Quddus demanded a probe and informed that Surendra Prasad Singh, the then additional VC of MMHAP, hired RSS Service, an outsourcing company for printing answer sheets and, in turn, RSS Service outsourced the task to a Lucknow-based printing press.

Earlier, BK Printing Press was being paid Rs 7 per answer sheet. "Singh, during his tenure, increased the printing rate from Rs 7 to Rs 16 per answer sheet. He gave 1.60 lakh copies for printing for a total cost of Rs 28 lakh. As the exam dates were announced, we paid Rs 22 lakh to the printing press," Quddus said.

A few days ago, Singh filed a defamation suit against Quddus at the Patna district court.