Campus sources said a two-member budget-inspection team of UGC finance committee led by UGC Finance Director Ibrahim Kabir visited the campus recently to investigate the issue of alleged illegal recruitment.

Upon investigation, they found that most of the recruitment was made without UGC permission and not as per the rules and regulation formed by UGC to prevent mass and political recruitment in public universities, campus sources said.

According to UGC rules, if any university needs recruitment, it must take permission from the UGC as well as approval from education and finance ministries, sources said.

Violating the rules, RU authorities recruited the teachers, officials and employees during BNP-Jamaat government tenure under political consideration, the source added.

The team asserted that the recruitment was a gross violation of rules and declared it illegal, adding that if the university authorities do not cancel the recruitment, the UGC will not disburse the last allocated money in the fiscal year 2006-2007.

Moreover, the UGC will not sanction any allocation for additional recruitment, a university high official said.

When contacted, RU VC Prof Altaf Hossain claimed that the recruitment was made against vacant posts.

When asked about UGC sanction, he said "We will present the real picture of the university to the UGC and request them for sanctioning the allocation".

Last year, university teachers and student organisations agitated against alleged mass recruitment, corruption, irregularities and violation of the University Act by the RU administration during the BNP-Jamaat rule.