Minister accused of copying resigns

Karnataka Governor Khurshed Alam Khan on Friday accepted the resignation of state higher education minister B Somasekhar, who had quit following the allegation that he had been caught copying as a law student 19 years ago.

Somasekhar, who had claimed he was innocent and that there was a political conspiracy against him, put in his papers on August 11 immediately after Chief Minister J H Patel announced a judicial inquiry into the allegation. Justice P Shivshankar Bhat was appointed two days ago to probe the charge.

Patel, who returned from New Delhi on Friday morning, forwarded the resignation letter to the governor. A Raj Bhavan communique on Friday night said the governor had accepted the resignation on Patel's advice.

Somasekhar is charged with copying while appearing for a law examination and being debarred from writing further examinations.

Patel announced the judicial inquiry after persistent demands by the Opposition in the Karnataka assembly. Following a similar demand in the legislative council, chairman D B Kalmankar had ordered a probe by a house committee.

Patel told the state assembly that he had ordered the judicial inquiry after consulting the advocate general on whether such an inquiry could be ordered when a house committee probe was on.

This was the second time Somasekhar had resigned as a minister. In 1988, he quit for his alleged involvement in a land-grabbing case in his constituency of Malavalli. That matter had been referred to a corps of detective inquiry during the then Ramakrishna Hegde ministry.

Somasekhar has urged Patel and the governor, who is the chancellor of the Bangalore University, to ensure that Vice-Chancellor N R Shetty was sent on leave till the judicial enquiry was over, claiming Shetty might tamper with the records. Somasekhar also alleged that Shetty had fabricated the documents to show that he had indulged in copying.

In his resignation letter to Patel, Somasekhar had stated that some vested interests who were intolerant of his stand on various vital issues concerning the educational field had hatched the conspiracy. The Shivshankar Bhat commission has been asked to submit its report in two months.

The terms of reference included whether the allegation against Somasekhar was true and whether the records of the university and the law college were fabricated or interpolated by any person to implicate Somasekhar.

It had also been asked to find out whether there was an attempt to tarnish Somasekhar's image by reports or leaking of documents by the vice-chancellor or any other person or authority.