PGI Chandigarh Professor alleged for using fake data in published research to face final decision

Chandigarh: A PGIMER Chandigarh faculty accused of using fake data as a basis of his research published in a journal in 2014, is going to face the final decision as the governing body meet in the first week of November is going to make a call on the matter.

A confirmation to this effect was made by the Director PGIMER, to the daily Tribune. The doctor, on the other hand is going to superannuate at the end of the month, added the daily. The doctor has faced 4 enquiries in the matter till now.

The professor and Head at the Pharmacology department at PGI was accused of "fraud"  in a research paper in the year 2014 for allegedly showing the fake data of the helpline calls received by the department.

According to the media reports, the drug information unit (DIU) at the PGI received just one helpline call in three years duration from 2011 to 2013, but in 2014, three doctors of the department including the HOD claimed in a research paper that the unit had 56 calls in a month. The said research was published in a peer- reviewed Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research

According to The Tribune report, since the matter came to light, 4 set of enquiries have been done in the matter. While the 1st three set of independent enquiries held the doctors guilty, the fourth set of enquiry done by single-member panel gave a clean chit to the professor.

1^st Inquiry

The first inquiry was conducted in 2014 by the Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research  after which the journal holding the doctor guilty, decided on retraction of the research paper and blacklisting the author.

"Our final and firm conclusion was that the editorial and peer reviewers have been duped by the authors by sending an article based of non-supportive data. This article has tarnished the name of our journal and has wasted serious editorial resources and time. We have taken decisions to retract the article from our journal," the enquiry stated.

2^nd inquiry

After the published report came into light, in 2015, a four-member inquiry committee was set up under one of the senior professors at the institute then, Dr Savita Malhotra.

The commitee concluded that Dr Chakrabarti failed to provide any evidence of 56 calls mentioned in the research paper. The inquiry report had found that " there is a clear discrepancy in the record provided and that which Dr Chakrabarti claims."

3rd inquiry

The case then was forwarded for inquiry to the PGI Ethics Committee committee that comprised of retired judges, ethicists and BN Goswamy as members under the chairmanship of late Prof KS Chugh.

The committee was of the opinion that 'the published data was not supported by documents provided by the authors. The publication of this paper tarnished the reputation of the institution."

4^th inquiry

The fourth inquiry was handed over to a single-member panel headed by Dr D Behra who has given a clean chit to Prof Amitava Chakrabarty.

Dr Jagat Ram, PGI Director without speaking anything on the fourth inquiry findings he said that everything depends on the decision taken after the general body meeting.

"The matter will be brought to the governing body in the first week of November. Whatever are the findings of current and previous inquiries, they will be tabled in the meeting." Dr Ram stated to The Tribune.