Taking serious note of the plagiarism charges against Professor Ashok Kumar and three students, Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur (IIT-K) director Sanjay Govind Dhande has constituted a three-member committee to probe the allegations.
The committee which comprises Professor Ashwini Kumar, Professor Somenath Bishwas and Professor Kalyanmoy Deb is expected to hand over its report in the next 10 days. It will be presented before the chairman of the board of governors of IIT-K on November 2. The institute’s authorities will contact national experts for a detailed investigation.
Professor Ashwini Kumar of Civil Engineering Department is a former Deputy Director of IIT-K, Kalyanmoy Deb is a professor in Mechanical Engineering Department and Somenath Bishwas is professor in Computer Sciences and Engineering department.
“The issue was brought to my knowledge by Professor Pradip Sinha, head of department of Bio-Sciences and Bio-Engineering department, following which a three-member committee has been constituted to probe the allegations,” said Dhande. Elaborating on the charges, he said two review papers of Bio-Sciences and Bio-Engineering department contained text from Wikipedia and other sources. “Plagiarism is a major charge and if found true, a written notice would be served to the alleged persons,” he said.