CBI TO GRILL OFFICIALS IN KARNATAKA UNIVERSITY'S RS 300-CR FEE SCAM

CBI is also planning to seek help from the Mysuru crime branch officials who had stumbled upon a racket in 2017.

- RAHUL CHHABRA

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is believed to be preparing to question officials, including former employees and serving staff, in the finance department of the Karnataka State Open University (KSOU) in connection with the Rs 300 crore fee embezzlement scam that unfolded over seven years from 2009 to 2016.

KSOU Registrar Prof R. Rajanna who had informed the Governor house about the scam is also on the CBI list for questioning as the agency wants to get a sense of circumstances that prevailed in the university when the matter was reported to the central agency, said sources.

KSOU, headquartered in Mysuru, was set up in 1996 and offers distance-learning university courses through collaborative institutions all over India. The scam revolves around swindling of course and exam fee collected by students by collaborative institutions. The institutes collected the money but it was never deposited in the university's bank accounts, said CBI sources.