Morung Express News
Dimapur | November 21
The head of a Centrally-funded technical institute in Nagaland has found mention in an investigation into fraudulent college affiliation case now ongoing in Tamil Nadu. The case, being investigated by the Tamil Nadu Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DV & AC), involves one of the country’s top technical universities— Anna University (AU), headquartered in Chennai, and several engineering colleges.
The case was first exposed in July 2024 by an anti-corruption NGO— Arappor Iyakkam, which alleged collusion between Anna University officials and private engineering/technical colleges for fraudulently affiliating colleges. The FIR was registered on November 14, 2025, at the DV&AC’s Chennai City-IV Police Station, under relevant sections of the law, including the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018.
As per the FIR, a copy of which is with The Morung Express, the alleged fraudulent college affiliations occurred during 2023-24. It named as accused ten senior AU officials, including two former registrars, besides three professors, and four private engineering colleges, “and other government officials, private individuals and private engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu.”
The incumbent Director of the NIT, Nagaland, was also listed an accused— “Dr A Elayaperumal, formerly Director of Affiliation Department (Centre for Affiliation of Institutions), Anna University, now working as Director of National Institute of Technology, Nagaland.”
The modus operandi of the alleged scam, as reported in the news, involved engineering/technical private colleges colluding with AU officials to inflate faculty numbers, listing professors employed elsewhere as full-time staff to meet affiliation requirements, contrary to the guidelines laid down by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).
The investigation revealed that the alleged scam affected 224 out of 480 engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu during the 2023-24 academic year, with as many as 353 individuals listed as teachers at multiple institutions. One professor was allegedly found on the rolls of 11 colleges.
