E-Paper
Guilty students let off the hook
STUDENTS ACCUSED of blackening the face of the then Allahabad University (AU) Proctor Prof Mata Ambar Tewari over a year ago have been let off by the varsity administration. The AU has taken the decision maintaining that there are not enough grounds to take any action against the students today, even though at the time of the shocking , the varsity administration had vowed to act tough with the guilty and an FIR in this regard had even led to the accused students being sent to jail.
STUDENTS ACCUSED of blackening the face of the then Allahabad University (AU) Proctor Prof Mata Ambar Tewari over a year ago have been let off by the varsity administration.
The AU has taken the decision maintaining that there are not enough grounds to take any action against the students today, even though at the time of the shocking , the varsity administration had vowed to act tough with the guilty and an FIR in this regard had even led to the accused students being sent to jail.
The recent decision has caused a lot of heartburn among many AU teachers who believe that the ‘guilty’ have escaped punishment only due to the infighting prevalent among the university teachers and that the move would only result in hoodlums becoming even bolder on the campus in the days to come.
It may be recalled that a mob of students led by some student leaders had blackened the face of the then AU Proctor Prof Mata Ambar Tewari, by hurling a polythene filled with mobil oil and paint on him on February 15, 2005. The security personnel accompanying Prof Tewari had then caught the guilty students and had handed them over to the cops after giving them a sound thrashing.Following the incident, both the AU teachers and many student organisations expressed their anger over the attack and demand for the expulsion of the guilty students, namely Ram Naresh Ram, Sunil Kumar Maurya and Ramayan Ram, besides some others, also gained momentum. However, even then a section of the teachers and students extended full support to the accused.The thenV-C Prof HR Singh had also formed an inquiry committee to probe the incident and an FIR resulted in the accused being sent to jail.However, suddenly on March 12, 2005, the AU authorities held a meeting chaired by Prof HR Singh and decided to let the accused students appear in their final exams even though earlier it had been decided not to give them this clearance. Upset over this decision, Prof Tewari withdrew his complaint and also resigned from the post of proctor on March 14, 2005.
Confirming the development, present AU Proctor Prof HN Mishra informed that a decision to reinstate Ram Naresh Ram and Sunil Kumar Maurya, had been taken by the AU administration.
