The authorities of the Dhaka University drew flak over the PhD degree of former Inspector General of Police Benazir Ahmed.
Benazir obtained the degree in 2019 while serving as the director general of the anti-crime buster Rapid Action Battalion.
The issue came into the fore following several allegations of amassing huge wealth were surfaced against him.
During a meeting of the Dean’s Committee, many teachers raised the issue before the meeting and proposed for the cancellation of the degree, obtained by the former IGP.
During a recent meeting of the senate, three members also proposed the meeting to cancel the PHD degree of Benazir as it was obtained through plagiarism. Even he was not eligible to get admitted to the DBA programme of the university.
Talking to the Bangladesh Post, pro-vice chancellor Sitesh Chandra Bachar (education) said, “This issue was discussed in last Deans Meeting and many teachers proposed for the
cancellation of his PhD.SO, we are concerned about this issue.”
When asked whether the meeting took any decision to cancel his degree, he replied, “We are yet to take any decision to scrap his degree.”
He said that the meeting also discussed about the conditions so that none could get admitted to DBA programme without qualifications.
When asked about Benazir’s admission, pro vice chancellor (admin) Prof Muhammad Samad, he said, “When Benazir Ahmed got admitted at DU, he was not here. I was serving as the Vice Chancellor of UITS. So, I can’t tell anything.”
“Our incumbent vice chancellor was the Dean and Prof AAMS Arefin Siddique was the vice chancellor at that time. So, you can talk to them,” he added.
While asked how Benazir got admitted at DU without qualifications, former VC AAMS Arefin Siddique said, “I can’t recall this right now.”
Despite repeated attempts by phone, vice chancellor Prof. ASM Maksud Kamal could not be reached for comments on the issue.
After obtaining the degree, Benazir started using ‘Dr’ before his name. Following a media reports, two DU teachers went through the research work of Benazir and found almost 94 percent plagiarized content in his 95-page dissertation.
They also found 39 percent content similarity index, 38 percent internet sources and 17percent copied from various publications.
