A Court of Judicial First-Class Magistrate in Aluva, Kerala, has directed the police to register a case and investigate allegations of fraud against a college and its officials, after a PhD scholar alleged that his research paper was published in a fraudulent journal despite being assured that it would appear in a genuine UGC-CARE listed publication.
The Court observed that the complainant had entrusted his research article, claiming it as his intellectual property and the product of considerable academic labour, on the representation that it would be published in a genuine UGC-CARE listed journal. The Court further observed that the allegations required investigation at the relevant places and collection of evidence to ascertain the truth behind the alleged facts. It therefore held that the matter required investigation and forwarded it to the SHO for investigation
The complaint was filed by Sachu Muraleedharan, a PhD scholar, against Sree Narayana Guru College, Coimbatore and Dr I. Maria Yesuraja, Professor and Head of the Social Work Department.
According to the complaint, the college organised a national conference on Social Work Practice in February 2023 and invited research papers for presentation. The conference brochure allegedly represented that selected papers would be published in the Kanpur Philosophers Journal, described as a UGC-CARE listed journal, upon payment of publication and registration charges of ?6,000. Acting on this representation, the complainant submitted his research paper titled “Mindfulness-Based Social Work Intervention for Adolescent Social Intelligence.”
The complaint states that on May 4, 2023, an email informed the complainant that his article had been published in the Kanpur Philosophers Journal and provided a publication certificate. However, upon subsequent verification, he allegedly discovered that the article had not been published in the genuine UGC-CARE listed journal, but in a fraudulent “clone” journal allegedly masquerading as the Kanpur Philosophers Journal.
The complainant alleged that he suffered academic prejudice, reputational injury, mental distress and financial loss, and despite being confronted with the alleged fraud, the accused continued to maintain that the publication was genuine. He subsequently issued legal notices and approached the police, but alleged that no effective investigation or FIR followed.
The complaint further states that representations were made before the local police and the District Police Chief, but the matter was repeatedly transferred between police stations on territorial-jurisdiction grounds without registration of an FIR.
The Magistrate, after hearing the complainant, found that the allegations required investigation and collection of evidence to ascertain the truth and directed that the matter be forwarded to the SHO for investigation.