Staff Reporter :
The High Court on Wednesday directed to initiate departmental proceedings against the then principal and hostel superintendent of Murari Chand College (MC College) in Sylhet by placing them under suspension within seven days over the sensational incident of gang-rape on their college campus on September 25, last year.
Vice-Chancellor and Registrar of the National University have been asked to comply with the directives.
The HC bench of Justice Md Mozibur Rahman Miah and Justice Md Kamrul Hossain Mollah delivered the verdict after holding hearing on a Suo Moto rule issued in this regard.
Following some published reports in the newspapers about the incident the HC bench headed by Justice Md Mozibur Rahman Miah issued the ruling on September 29 last year and concluded the hearing on the ruling on March 11 this year.
In the observation the High Court said, “Invariably the rape victim was entitled to have protection from the college authority, a public institution in whatever manner it be in enjoying her most basic fundamental right to life and personal liberty, but it was crumbled brutally for which the inaction of the respective authority of the college was responsible.”
If the exemplary action is taken against the negligents, the woman of our country will take our nation forward to a new height free from all sorts of oppression, also observed the court.
Advocate Mohammad Misbah Uddin who brought the reports to the attention of the court took part in support of the ruling, while Deputy Attorney General Nawroz Md Russel Chowdhury represented the State.
In the ruling the court asked the respondent to show cause as to why they should not be directed to take appropriate legal steps against the principal and hostel superintendent of the MC College as they are found to have neglected to save an innocent woman from the rapists on their campus and as they kept silent so long allowing non-student persons there.
The High Court bench also formed a three-member inquiry committee headed by the Judge of Nari O Shishu Nirjatan Tribunal of Sylhet to conduct an enquiry into the rape incident by taking depositions from the victim, college principal, hostel superintendent, concern persons and informants who witnessed the incident.
The committee submitted its 170-page probe report to the HC bench on October 20 last year, saying that there was negligence on the part of two hostel superintendents, three day-guards and two night-guards.
Principal Prof Mohammad Saleh Ahmed, the head of the institution, also cannot avert his responsibilities, the committee said in its inquiry report, adding that some former and current students of the college had occupied seats in the hostel and Saifur Rahman, a former student, managed to occupy the residence of the hostel superintendent.
Thus, they dared commit the heinous crime on the college campus, the probe report mentioned.
In the probe report the committee made 15 recommendations in order to ensure security on the college campus.
Some Chhatra League men forcibly took a young woman who came to visit MC College campus on September 25 in 2020, to the college dormitory and gang-raped her keeping her husband locked in a room.
Her husband filed a case with Shahporan police station against nine persons including BCL activist Saifur Rahman. Later eight of the accused were arrested and case is now under trial in a Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal in Sylhet.
