Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) is controversial after retired professor Rajeev Kumar accused his former PhD mentee, Om Prakash, of stealing and publishing his research in an IEEE journal without consent. The disputed paper, Detection of Fake Accounts on Social Media Using Multimodal Data With Deep Learning, was published on August 7, 2023, with seven co-authors from various institutions.
Professor Kumar, who retired in March 2024, claims the core research concepts were his work, while Om Prakash contributed minimally. Despite the paper's retraction initiated after Kumar's complaint, it remains accessible on the IEEE Xplore digital library, leading Kumar to escalate the matter.
He has filed a formal police complaint, accusing Prakash and the co-authors of plagiarism, gift authorship, and intellectual theft. Kumar also questions JNU's complaint handling and alleges a conspiracy involving his former mentee and other academics.
This is not Kumar's first brush with controversy. He previously exposed discrepancies in the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) system in 2006, which earned him praise and criticism.
Kumar plans to take legal action and issue an open letter to top Indian authorities, including the President and Prime Minister, urging a thorough investigation and robust safeguards against academic fraud.