Does Neil Somaiya really have a PhD?

Yuva Sena leaders and members protest Somaiya’s ‘fake’ degree at the University of Mumbai’s Kalina campus on Wednesday

Seeking action against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kirit Somaiya and his son and former corporator Neil for an allegedly fake PhD, Yuva Sena leaders and over 50 students attached to the youth wing of the Shiv Sena (Thackeray-led) on Wednesday staged a dharna at Ambedkar Bhawan at the Mumbai University's Kalina campus. Calling his degree fake, protestors flashed placards showing morphed photos of Neil and his father as Munna Bhai MBBS and his side-kick, Circuit.

Yuva Sena leaders have alleged that Neil's doctorate degree from the Mumbai University is bogus. The leaders and former university senate members have also alleged that the university has been reluctant to provide information about the department where the copy of Neil's PhD thesis is, for the past six months.

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Neil Somaiya

"We have been refused information on the degree in question for the past six months. If the university continues to hide the information we will consider this as their effort to cover up their misdoings. We will intensify our protest," said Yuva Sena leader and former senate member Pradeep Sawant.

After Neil got his degree in October, various student organisations questioned it and demanded an inquiry into the process followed by the university to award him the degree just over a year after registration. On October 1, Kirit Somaiya tweeted an image of the university notification awarding PhD to Neil, which went viral leading to the controversy over the period in which the degree was awarded.

According to the notification, Neil, a candidate from the Sydenham Institute of Management Studies, received a PhD in Impact of social media on political party image from the faculty of commerce and management in September 2022. Neil registered for the programme in June 2021, and submitted his thesis in August 2022, according to the document. The protestors alleged that both PhD of the father and son duo is bogus.

The certificate for the PhD given to Neil Somaiya

Taking a dig a Shiv Sena, Kirit Somaiya, said everyone knows the mental condition of Shiv Sena now. "They have objections on anything and everything. Not just Neil's degree, they have even raised questions over my PhD. Documents of both our the PhD and notifications have been released by even the university and us and are in the public domain. If they still have objections they can approach the appropriate authority or even the court. Anyone can protest, nobody can object to that. We choose to ignore such gimmicks," Somaiya told mid-day.

As per a convocation certificate shared by Somaiya, he presented his PhD thesis in commerce in 2005 and the same was accepted at the convocation held on December 30, 2008.