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Sting on AMU Prof: 2 TV reporters held
The police on Monday arrested two local TV reporters who conducted a sting operation on an Aligarh Muslim University professor having consensual sex with another man on February 8.
The police on Monday arrested two local TV reporters who conducted a sting operation on an Aligarh Muslim University professor having consensual sex with another man on February 8.
The reporters, Syed Adil Murtaza and Shiraz, were charged with forcibly entering the house of Prof Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras, 64, and causing him physical harm.
The police had earlier refused to register a first information report when Siras complained that the reporters had invaded his privacy and beat him up.
Reacting to the arrests, AMU Teachers’ Association President Mukhtar Ahmad said, “We want the police to interrogate the two fairly so that the truth behind the sting operation which culminated in the tragic demise of our colleague is fully unravelled.”
Some senior AMU officials, including Siras’ colleagues, are also likely to be questioned in connection with the case, said a police official who did not want to be named.
Monday’s arrests came 12 days after Siras, reader and chairman of AMU’s department of Modern Indian Languages, was found dead in his flat under mysterious circumstances on April 7.
He died a few days after he returned from Nagpur, where he owned property worth Rs 3 crore, to which his ex-wife has laid claim. Siras was to retire in September.
Doctors who conducted the post-mortem examination on his body did not ascertain the cause of his death, saying consumption of some poisonous substance or a heart attack could have caused it.
They had said a forensic report of his viscera and heart would provide a clearer picture.
Siras was suspended from his post for “gross misconduct” the day after video clips of the sting operation were shown to the
AMU authorities.
Siras then approached the Allahabad High Court, which upheld his plea on April 1 and ordered the university to reinstate him.
(with PTI inputs)
