The Ciaa had taken Vice-chancellor Maheshwor Man Shrestha, Registrar Niroj Pandey, Examination Controller Mohan Bahadur Basnet and Chief Accountant Laxman Gelal into custody on Sunday for an investigation. The anti-graft body has also suspended Management Faculty Dean Sambhu Koirala and Assistant Dean of Science Faculty Rajesh Jha on Wednesday.

A university staffer said that all administrative works have been affected. "As there is no one to sign the cheque, we cannot even buy a pen," he said.

Dinesh Raj Subedi, secretary of the Teachers' Union, urged the government to find immediate alternative to run daily works of the university. The union had taken the initiative to begin an investigation into alleged corruption in the university.

In the absence of responsible officials, the university has been facing problems like handling the students coming to collect their mark sheets, transcriptions, registration and even sending observers, question papers, and answer sheets.

The university, that spends over Rs 900,000 per month on staff salaries, has 31 employees in its central office at Pushpa Lal Chowk in Biratnagar. However, only 13 were present when this scribe visited the office recently.

Meanwhile, a university staffer said the Ciaa move to arrest only the senior officials does not guarantee that the documents that can be used as evidence will be safe as various other department in-charges, who are not taken into custody, may also be involved in irregularities. The Ciaa has already seized 10 sacks full of documents, according to the staffer.

The university staffers were in a dilemma as to how they could carry out their responsibilities, including overseeing four constituent campuses, hospitals in rural areas, examination management, running seven offices and supervising affiliate colleges.

Even the Executive Council that oversees the university's programmes and policies has been paralysed after the Ciaa move and has been left with only one member.

Meanwhile, expressing concern over the future of the students, Rupesh Basnet, chairperson of the university employees' union, said the legal hurdles should be removed and executive power of the university should be handed over to senior professors.