In a first, a 23-year-old prisoner lodged in Varanasi central jail has been awarded a gold medal by the Indira Gandhi National Open University, IGNOU for topping in Diploma in Tourism Studies. Ajeet Kumar Saroj, a culpable homicide convict was on Saturday escorted to the Banaras Hindu University where he was awarded his diploma at the 28th convocation of IGNOU. Ajeet, is serving a 10-year imprisonment. He was lodged in jail in February 2012 and has pursued four certificate courses from IGNOU before pursuing the Diploma in Tourism Studies. The inmate is the only gold medalist from Varanasi region of IGNOU, which covers 20 districts. Lauding his achievement IGNOU Vice Chancellor said, that IGNOU is perhaps the only university in the world with extensive programmes for education and training of jail inmates. Fee waiver has been a significant factor in providing impetus to the rehabilitation of prisoners encouraging them to be productive members of society.