The state vigilance investigation bureau, suspecting large-scale irregularities in the awarding of PhD degrees to foreigners, has sought specific information from senior officials of Magadh University, Bodhgaya.

Last week, Pratibha Kumari, the bureau's deputy superintendent of police (DSP), wrote a letter to varsity registrar N.K. Shastri, asking him to furnish details of students of foreign origin who had been awarded PhD degrees from 2010-11 to 2015-16.

Sources said a 26-point questionnaire had been sent to the university official. The registrar has been directed to furnish the required information to the bureau office in Patna within a week through a special messenger.

The questions ask when students had applied for research, their application and enrolment numbers, research topic, names of guides, names of countries they belonged to, their passport and visa details.

The move comes after a preliminary inquiry revealed that some students who had never visited the university had been awarded degrees. Moreover, non-teaching employees and ad hoc teachers were assigned the crucial job of PhD supervision.

Since the 2010-11 academic calendar, Magadh University has awarded over 350 PhD degrees.

The university authorities remained tight-lipped.

When contacted, registrar Shastri said: "I am busy in an official meeting. Call after some time." Thereafter, he didn't pick up his phone.

The bureau, sources said, first received a complaint in this regard in April this year. A preliminary investigation was carried out, which hinted at large-scale irregularities in the awarding of PhD degrees.

The issue was also raised in the meeting of the university senate in Rajgir, Nalanda. Sources said in 2003, the vice-chancellor of Maharashtra University, Jalgaon, had suspected something amiss after he found that some of the PhD degree holders of Magadh University held fake degrees.

Sources said wards of many VIPs were awarded degrees in violation of norms.

A professor of the university, three former vice-chancellors including S.C. Mukherjee, and a former high court judge appointed as vice-chancellor were charge-sheeted by the criminal investigation department (CID) in the Shikha Gupta case, he added.

The varsity awarded PhD to Shikha, the wife of then Bihar-cadre IPS officer Anurag Gupta (now posted in Jharkhand), allegedly in violation of norms. The CID probe had unearthed the modus operandi of degree racketeers operating in the university.