Ph D research guide & 3 others booked for demanding bribe

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) of Jalna caught the son of Ph D research guide of the college of the city while accepting a bribe of Rs 50,000 from a research student.

Dr Eraj Siddiqui, the research guide who is also a librarian at Dr Rafiq Zakaria College for Women was booked along with three others at Begumpura Police Station today.

It may be noted that the complainant is doing Ph D research in Library and Information Science subject under the guidance of Dr Eraj. Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University (Bamu) allotted this research guide to the complainant.

The Ph D researcher (complainant) gets a Rs 50,400 monthly fellowship from Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Research and Training Institute (Mahajyoti). The research guide demanded Rs 10,000 monthly for signing quarterly and half-yearly progress reports, self-declaration and HR sheets.

The research guide who draws a monthly salary of more than Rs 2 lakh demanded Rs 10,000 monthly bribe from the fellowship holder. Her son fixed the bribe amount of Rs 5 lakh for four years. The researcher lodged a complaint with ACB Jalna. The ACB team caught her son while accepting the first instalment of Rs 50,000 from the complainant at Mill Corner. A case was registered against the librarian and three others.

The names of the accused are Dr Eraj Siddiqui, Shaikh Umar Sk Ghani (assistant librarian), and her two sons Dr. Siddiqui Faizuddin alias Sameer Riyazuddin and Siddiqui Faraz Mohd Riyazuddin. Shaikh Umar sought Rs 25,000 to help in signing documents from the research guide.

The librarian asked the researcher to meet her son Dr Siddiqui alias Sameer on July 27. The researcher met Sameer who demanded Rs 10,000 monthly for the years from November 2022 to November 2026 (Rs 5 lakh for four years). Sameer also offered to accept the first instalment of Rs 50,000 from the researcher who lodged a complaint with the Jalna ACB team. The research guide sent her another son Siddiqui Faraz to collect the amount. The ACB team caught Faraz while accepting a bribe of Rs 50,000, on Monday.

A team of police inspector Shankar Mutekar under the guidance of ACB superintendent of police Sandeep Atole, and Additional SP Mukund Aghav took action. The ACB raided the office of the son of the main accused and nabbed him. Two others were also nabbed. When the ACB team reached the college at 3.30 pm today to arrest the accused, she ran away. The team members could not attend her as they did not recognise her face.