BTC chief vows action on book piracy allegations amid legal notice to 33 colleges

Bijni/Chirang, May 12: Chief Executive Member (CEM) of the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC), Pramod Boro, has vowed stern action against those involved in an alleged corruption scandal in the BTR Education Department.

“A legal notice has been sent by someone from Delhi against the Office of the Director of Education. I had a discussion with the secretary and the director about the issue. These are serious allegations, and we will examine what action can be taken,” said Boro while addressing the press.

Clarifying the procedure regarding book procurement by colleges, the Chief Executive Member (CEM) explained the usual process and addressed the concerns raised.

"Colleges usually submit their book requirements to university and normally during book fairs, many of them procure books from selected shops, with the Council later clearing the bills. However, the book fair could not be held this time.I haven’t noticed anything unusual. I also spoke to the Secretary, and no payments have been made so far,” he added.

Earlier in the day, a person named Vijay Kumar Gaur, a social activist from Delhi, filed a legal notice against 33 colleges in the BTR for allegedly being involved in the unlawful and organised crime of book piracy.

“You have been actively defrauding schools and universities by distributing pirated and unauthorised publications of foreign-authored books originally imported and now illicitly published, particularly in the Dariyaganj area of Delhi,” the notice read.

Reportedly, the illegal operation is being allegedly masterminded by one Prashant Jain, who, along with his brother Gaurav Jain, is running a piracy racket through several blacklisted publication organisations, including Indica Publishers and Distributors Pvt. Ltd., Rishabh Books, Aadi Books, Metro Books Pvt. Ltd and Shree Publishers.

According to the notice, these people are orchestrating a large-scale systematic racket fuelled by Hawala transactions, thereby defrauding legitimate institutions and exploiting unsuspecting students for personal profit.

“This operation has generated illicit profits amounting to thousands of crores of rupees. It is further alleged that this is being done in collusion with vice-chancellors of various universities, who, in exchange for commissions and luxurious benefits such as hotel stays, are promoting the procurement of pirated books, thereby assisting the aforementioned publishers in inflating orders and increasing their overall turnover,” the notice further read.

The primary objective of this legal notice was to expose the full extent of this deep-rooted criminal conspiracy.

The legal notice further revealed that the librarian of Bodoland University, Khagen Kalita, is also helping the aforementioned people in getting orders approved.

“However, the conspiracy appears to be far-reaching, involving not only the Secretary but also the Director, Principal Secretary Bodoland Territorial Council (hereinafter referred to as "B.T.C"), and Librarian of the Bodoland University, all of whom are allegedly complicit in the matter and have received substantial commissions,” the legal notice mentioned.

The social activist in the legal notice has requested all the 33 colleges to not place new orders with blacklisted publishers.