Gauhati University. File picture

Guwahati, June 26: Gauhati University has constituted a one-man fact-finding committee to look into charges of plagiarism involving a senior faculty member following sustained pressure from its teachers’ union and a section within its influential executive council.

A committee has also been set up to come up with regulations to check plagiarism in the institution.

Triggering the twin moves was an essay, Machiavelli and the Jew of Malta, authored by Aparna Bhattacharyya, head in-charge of the English department.

Sources in Gauhati University Teachers Association (GUTA) said the 18-page essay, featuring in a 190-page book, has allegedly liberally used pre-existing materials without citing the original sources.

The dean, faculty of arts, will look into the allegations.

A meeting of the executive council, the apex decision-making body of the institution, decided to set up the twin committees yesterday even after its chairman and vice-chancellor O.K. Medhi informed the house that the editor, Nandana Dutta, head of the English department currently on sabbatical, had told him that it had been withdrawn from the market, a council member said.

Confirming the development, Sarat Borkataky, a member of the council and a former minister, told this correspondent, “A one-man panel will look into the allegations.”

Medhi could not be contacted but he had told The Telegraph last week that the issue was first raised in a council meeting on April 29 and that he was awaiting the editor’s report.

Bhattacharyya dismissed the charges but admitted to lapses on her part at the proof-reading stage. “I welcome the probe about which I heard this morning. A lot of work has been quoted in the essay but inadvertently I did not cite the sources. It (the charge) is not a great discovery but it is unfortunate. Once the allegation surfaced, I took up the matter with the vice-chancellor and the editor before it was raised at the council meeting. I am not a plagiarist. The book has already been taken off the shelves,” she said.

“The allegations were nothing but personal vendetta as the book was published in 2010 but I will not take names. I am retiring next year. I like teaching and have had an enriching career,” she added.

Welcoming the council’s decision, GUTA general secretary Dwipen Bezbaruah said the association had taken serious note of the matter at its May 11 executive.

“The GUTA considers it unfortunate that a teacher is a part of such controversy. We had urged the authority to conduct an independent inquiry and, if proved guilty, take appropriate action. The GUTA felt only seeking the view of the editor would be inadequate to deal with a sensitive issue like alleged plagiarism,” he said.

The editor of the book did not respond to calls today but she had earlier said, “The book was withdrawn after the author informed me about the allegation. It is neither prescribed as a text nor a reference for students. Individual faculty are free to publish without GU’s permission.”