Pune engineering college panel grills Chandrakant Kunjir for misconduct

A three-member sub-committee of the board of governors of the College of Engineering, Pune (CoEP) grilled professor Chandrakant Kunjir on Friday as part of disciplinary proceedings against him.

Kunjir is facing allegations of tarnishing the image of the institution in the media, constantly bypassing protocol and having lost answer sheets and not informing the institution of the matter.

An internal committee had been set up by the CoEP after the professor claimed that a woman, allegedly his second wife, stole his car and answer sheets. Kunjir returned the answer sheets after the CoEP officials took strong objection on why he hadn’t informed them earlier and instituted an inquiry.

Former vice-chancellor of Goa University, BS Sonde; former director of Nvidia Graphics Ltd, Anand Khandekar; and director of CoEP, Dr Anil Sahastrabuddhe; grilled Kunjir for almost 6 hours, besides interviewing other professors and students whose papers were lost and those taught by Kunjir.

“It would be premature to comment on the matter, though we assure of action within eight days. All we want to say is that we have taken a serious view of the issue,” said Sahastrabuddhe.
Sources said Kunjir was asked how a certain photograph of his with the woman and the CoEP’s heritage building in the background was given to the media. He was asked how each time the media reported  incidents before the institution was informed about them.

“Kunjir has claimed that he never spoke to the media, who got information from the police. He has also denied giving them any pictures,” said the source.

The sub-committee also grilled him on why he kept mum even though, according to his report, the papers had been missing for two months.