FORMER director of International Students Centre (ISC), Shantishree Pandit, is in the eye of a storm following allegation that she, and her Iranian PhD student Ahmad Reza Bahadori Ghezeljeh, received excess amount to the tune of Rs 9 lakh as fee, in addition to her salary as a reader from the University of Pune.

According to UoP rules, a serving staff, when given additional charge, gets Rs 500 per month in addition to her or his salary.

However, UoP papers show that around Rs 6 lakh were paid as fee in addition to her salary as a reader during former vice chancellor Ashok Kolaskar's tenure.
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Pandit had also 'illegally' paid Ghezeljeh undue honorarium of around Rs 2 lakh during her tenure.

Documents and internal UoP correspondence, in MiD DAY's possession, show that Pandit and Ghezeljeh were overpaid by the university.

When contacted, current Vice Chancellor Narendra Jadhav admitted that the matter of overpayment had come up before him and the inquiry committees.

"Yes, excess payments were made. A full scale departmental inquiry is also on against Pandit in another case. This and several other financial irregularities will also come up during the investigation," he said.

Pandit, however, told MiD DAY that since she had no financial powers, she was paid according to the budget passed and had no hand in them. "I have not withdrawn any money and don't know anything more about this matter," she said

Clean chit

"The documents might have been forged," Pandit alleged. She has also said that before the current inquiry committee was set up, two other committees had given her a clean chit.
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It may be recalled that Pandit is facing an inquiry into an alleged scam amounting to crore of rupees involving illegal admissions ostensibly to People of Indian Origin (PIO) into various colleges in the city through the ISC during her tenure.

An officer from the foreign registration office of the Special Branch told MiD DAY that Ghezeljeh has been over-staying in the country (in Pune) and had married an Indian girl to avoid deportation to Iran. He allegedly acted a tout at the ISC, especially during Pandit's tenure.