POLICE appeared to have released an alleged activist of Bangladesh Chhatra League hours after taking him into custody from Jagannath University on charges of sexually assaulting a female teacher on Sunday. The university’s acting Proctor Dr Noor Muhammad said the accused, a student of Islamic History, was handed over to Kotwali police from the campus in the afternoon but he was set free later on, according to reports in a national daily.
“We have already suspended the student from the department and a three-member committee has been set up to probe the incident,” said Noor, who is heading the probe body. Witnesses were quoted in the report as saying police were seen leaving the university campus with the accused student in their vehicle as rival activists of Bangladesh Chhatra Union were demonstrating in front of the Vice-Chancellor’s office demanding exemplary punishment.
A student took a photograph of the accused student, sitting next to an officer in the police vehicle, on his mobile phone making no mistake that he was arrested. When a correspondent sent a copy of the photograph to the victim teacher, she identified her predator However, Kotwali Police later denied such arrest. The victim teacher, a lecturer of public administration, expressed her shock at police denial although she said she was present when police took him from the Proctor’s office and she had also talked to police when he was in police custody at Kotwali station.
In the case statement, she has alleged that the accused student having blocked her way near the university mosque, started a row with her. At one point, he pushed her, pulled her cloth and slapped her. “I also slapped him, held him by the shirt collar and took him to the Proctor’s office,” the teacher complained in the statement. The acting proctor however said a law enforcer had called him to inform that the accused has escaped from the custody.
A time existed in the not too distant past when it was unthinkable for even a dacoit to lay hands on a teacher. Unfortunately we are living in a time where the culture of impunity abounds and people affiliated with powerful political parties feel they can do anything — whether be it beating a teacher or sexually molesting teachers on the campus. That such a culture exists is entirely due to the confrontational attitude of our politics where political parties depend on students as muscle power to hold control over the rivals and therefore do little to rein in their criminal activists.
This is a cancer; which will slowly destroy our education system and the country — as it is already doing. The Jagannath University story in question clearly shows that police have acted on political nexus without bothering that sexual assault by a student on a female teacher in the campus is high degree crime that can’t be ignored at all. In fact, it shows police slowly losing people’s trust to bring culprits to justice. We hope that senior police officials would look into the incident and make sure that the perpetrators be punished.
