Governor orders probe into JNTU deal with private firm

Hyderabad: Governor E.S.L. Narsimhan on Wednesday appointed retired Justice G. Bhavani Prasad as the enquiry authority to look into an illegal MoU between JNTU Anantapur and a Hyderabad-based private company.

In the preliminary probe report, chairman of the AP State Council of Higher Education found that JNTU-Anantapur had entered into an illegal MoU with a private company Sonti Soft Solutions Pvt Ltd, without following the tender process and even paid Rs 19 crore to the company.

The report said the money was paid to the company despite the Vice-Chancellor not having the powers to do so. Sonti Soft was entrusted with the job of exam processing.

Justice Bhavani Prasad will conduct an enquiry into the entrustment of the work to the company and submit a report. Justice Bhavani Prasad is a retired judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court.