Ankiv Baisoya says he will file a defamation suit against the NSUI for making baseless claims.
The newly elected president of Delhi University Students' Union (DUSU) Ankiv Baisoya representing the BJP-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) could be in trouble amid allegations that he got post graduate admission by submitting fake documents.
Mr Baisoya has dismissed the allegation as false and "baseless" and said that his admission to the university was done after proper verification of documents.
But when NDTV contacted Dr P Asokan, the Controller of Examinations of the Thiruvalluvar University in Vellore, he said, "No student by the name Ankiv Baisoya studied with us. We have no branches or study centres anywhere, including Delhi. It's a fake certificate. No student by that name studied either at our university or at any of the more than 100 affiliated colleges. We receive many such complaints. We are not responsible for dubious institutions offering certificates in our name."
The ABVP's rival student group, the Congress-backed National Students' Union of India (NSUI), had made the claim with a written reply that the university gave to the Tamil Nadu Congress which sent copies of his undergraduate mark-sheets that he had reportedly submitted for verification.
The letter says, "The copy of the certificate of Ankiv Baisoya has been verified and found that the said certificate is not genuine. It is a fake certificate."
K Selvaperundagai, the Congress leader who heads the SC wing of the Tamil Nadu Congress who had forwarded them to the university, said, "Our NSUI colleagues had obtained copies from the Delhi University. So these are genuine copies."
The controversy flared when Congress students from Tamil Nadu working in Delhi ahead of elections heard that Ankiv studied in Vellore, he said. "Our teams got suspicious and traced his papers," he said.
He added, "Not a single student who was at the university around the same time recollected anyone named Ankiv Baisoya. Now our suspicion has been officially proven."
NDTV has accessed a copy of the marksheet submitted by Ankiv Baisoya.
The mark-sheets allegedly submitted by Mr Baisoya which NDTV has accessed show many errors. For instance, the Tamil title of the university's name on top has glaring spelling mistakes. It does not give the major subject's name. It merely says BA. The names of the subjects too appear odd. Instead of clear names of subjects the certificates say Core Theory, Elective, Allied, Non Major Elective etc.
Speaking to NDTV, Mr Baisoya said he will file a defamation suit against the NSUI and asserted he has submitted all his certificates to the university. When asked about submitting his certificates, he said to contact the university.
In a statement, the ABVP termed the NSUI allegation a propaganda.
"DU has all the right to verify documents of not only Ankiv but all DUSU office bearers to stop rumours in future," the ABVP said.
ABVP bagged three posts, including that of the president, in the Delhi University Students' Union elections last week.
Mr Baisoya won the presidential post with a margin of 1,744 votes while ABVP's Shakti Singh was declared the vice president after he won with a margin of 7,673 votes.