Patna, June 25: Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Bihar University, Muzaffarpur, set up an inquiry committee today to ascertain under what circumstances the university had recommended affiliation to five colleges run by the Vishun Roy Trust in Vaishali district this March.

Bachcha Rai, in judicial custody for his involvement in the Intermediate results scan, runs the Vishun Roy Trust at its office in Vaishali's Bhagwanpur (Kiratpur), around 40km north of Patna. The trust runs at least 10 colleges and five schools in different parts of Vaishali district.

He is also the director-cum-principal of Vishun Roy College in Vaishali from where most of the "toppers" gave their examination.

The Muzaffarpur university proctor, Satish Kumar Rai, said the three-member probe committee will go through the records the trust submitted to the university for affiliation of four degree colleges and one BEd college in Bhagwanpur, Patepur, Mahua and Lalganj. He, however, didn't specify any time limit for the committee to submit its report.

The decision to form the high-level committee was taken at an emergency meeting of the university syndicate today presided over by vice-chancellor Pandit Palande. The committee will have a member each from the academic council, syndicate and the senate.

Rai said the university will seek legal opinion from the additional advocate-general. "Since the matter is serious, we have decided to seek legal opinion as well," he said over the phone from Muzaffarpur.

The syndicate has also decided to submit the interim report of the three-member committee set up earlier by the university to probe allegations against VR College in Kiratpur (Bhagwanpur). The committee, comprising Rai and two inspectors of colleges, had submitted interim report to Palande on Thursday.

Ahead of today's syndicate meeting, the new teaching and affiliation committee of the university has recommended to serve a showcause notice on Vishun Roy Trust before recommending cancellation of its five colleges.

The council, however, decided to give a month's ultimatum to the trust.

On March 19, the senate had sent recommendations to the state government for affiliation of the four degree colleges and one BEd college allegedly owned by Rai and his family members.

The Bihar School Examination Board has suspended affiliation of VR College in the wake of the controversy surrounding its toppers, whose results have since then been suspended. "The affiliation to VR College was given in violation of the prescribed norms," said syndicate member Harendra Kumar.

Harendra, a former senator of the university, pointed out that a degree college required at least 10 acres of land to run the institution. But, he claimed, VR (Intermediate) College was granted affiliation in 2014 in violation of the rules. Two vigilance complaints were also lodged against Bachcha in Muzaffarpur in 2014 but he managed to get clean chit from the vigilance bureau, Harendra added.