More and more details of the scam at the animation department of Gujarat University are emerging as the inquiry progresses. Kamaljit Lakhtariya, the former head of the department has been found to have transferred more than ₹1.15 crore to a joint account with his wife, as per the judicial inquiry report. 

However, he returned only ₹67.32 lakh to the university, leaving ₹48,23,025 unaccounted for. Additionally, the report states that he wrongfully received a salary of over ₹42 lakh. Based on the findings of the judicial inquiry, the university had decided to terminate his employment as a faculty member.

Findings of inquiry report  

As per the judicial inquiry report, Lakhtariya transferred over ₹1.15 crore to his wife’s account but returned only ₹67.32 lakh to the university. Thus, ₹48,23,025 remains unaccounted for. The report also highlights inconsistencies in his responses—his reply to the first notice and the response in the charge sheet differed.

Initially, he claimed that his name was listed first in the joint account with his wife, and the money was transferred inadvertently but later returned.

However, in another response, he stated that the money was taken to provide advance payments to vendors. These contradictory statements raised further concerns.

From the total transferred amount of over ₹1.15 crore, only ₹67,32,028 could be verified through submitted vouchers and slips, leaving the rest unexplained.

Although he was issued three notices by the university, he maintained that there was no financial misconduct or fraud, asserting that all transactions were approved by the authorities. The report further revealed that Kamaljit Lakhtariya received an excess salary of ₹42.88 lakh over three years.

Lakhtariya was appointed as an associate professor on probation in the computer science department at GU. Following a resolution by the executive council and an order from the vice-chancellor, he was made permanent on June 26, 2017. 

However, before that, on December 29, 2015, he was appointed as the in-charge coordinator of the Animation Department. In addition to his associate professor’s salary, he was also granted an additional monthly honorarium of ₹15,000, which was later increased to ₹30,000.

However, the inquiry report details salary irregularities. In 2021, instead of receiving ₹3.60 lakh annually at the rate of ₹30,000 per month, he received ₹4.22 lakh.

In 2022, he received ₹12,74,939 instead of ₹3.60 lakh, and in 2023, he took ₹36,71,895 instead of ₹3.60 lakh. This resulted in an excess salary of ₹42.88 lakh. In his defence, Lakhtariya claimed that all honorarium payments were made with the approval of the university authorities and that the excess funds were utilised for minor expenses, purchases, and infrastructure development.