Bhubaneswar, May 26: Police arrested Siksha 'O' Anusandhan (SOA) University's additional dean of placement Raj Kumar Hota today for his alleged involvement in the fake placement scandal that threatens the careers of more than 400 students.

To end the unrest on campus over the incident, the varsity today announced a monthly stipend of Rs 20,000 to each of the victims until they get jobs. Additionally, the varsity also promised to arrange jobs for all of the 400 students within three months.

The agitating students, however, have refused to lift their demonstration at the main gate of the university campus demanding more compensation.

The police arrested Hota, 52, from his office this morning on the basis of a formal complaint lodged by the varsity authorities on Wednesday.

"Preliminary inquiries reveal complicity of Hota. He has not been able to produce the agreement between the university and the consultancy agency to hire these students. He will be interrogated to find out the modus operandi of the fake job racket. We will also try to find out if others were involved," said police commissioner Y.B. Khurania.

Police said Hota's job as placement officer of the Institute of Technical Education and Research (ITER), a constituent of the varsity, was to verify the credentials of any consultancy company coming for campus placements.

"But the official concerned failed to verify the authenticity of the Delhi-based consultancy, which recruited over 400 students in nine companies. We are also trying to find out if Hota had received any financial benefits from the consultancy," said a police official.

Hota, a professor in ITER's chemistry department, has been in charge of the placement cell since 2003. The accused has denied his involvement in the scam and said the consultancy firm was solely responsible for the situation.

"The consultancy trapped the varsity in a planned way. There is no fault either of the varsity or mine in this matter. I am in charge of placement of ITER since 2003 and my honesty and integrity can be enquired into. The investigation will clear things and I want the guilty punished," said Hota.

The university had held its placement drive for BTech students from November to March last with more than 60 companies taking part. The students were provided with call letters and subsequently joining letters after going through written tests, group discussions and personal interviews. However the new recruits were shocked after around 50 of them reached Gurgaon on Tuesday to join one of the companies that had purportedly selected them.

The company authorities, however, denied having ever visited the SOA campus and issuing them any recruitment letters. Following the incident, the university authorities crosschecked with the other companies, supposedly represented by the consultancy firm, and found joining letters and offer letters issued by nine other companies to be fake.

Vice-chancellor of the varsity Amit Banerjee today assured the agitating students that a monthly stipend of Rs 20,000 would be given to each of the duped students apart from fresh jobs for them within three months. The vice-chancellor gave a written assurance on judicial paper following which the students called off their fast-unto-death agitation this morning.

However, the students resumed protests again demanding double the compensation amount offered by the university. The agitating students also demanded that university reimburse the travel expenses they had borne for joining the jobs that turned out to be fake.