By Md. Ali, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: Jamia Millia Islamia has issued a legal notice to Afroz Alam Sahil, one of its students and also a RTI activist, for making allegation of financial irregularity, during a debate on Batla House encounter on NDTV India.
Sahil, who had brought out a series of shocking revelations about Batla House ‘encounter’ had said “Jamia das lakh rupiya kha gaya” while participating in the debate on the alleged fake encounter on January 18, 2012.
Jamia has sent Sahil a legal notice to publish unconditional apology at prominent place in at least three national dailies and to make NDTV air a clarification of his statement,” failing which a penal action will be initiated against him to the tune of 50 Lakh rupees. He has been asked to reply the notice within one week.
In the notice Jamia denied receiving Rs 10 Lakhs and rejected any allegation in this regard. “No such like amount was ever received by the Jamia (as leveled by you) are a figment of your prejudiced imagination against the institution,” reads the legal notice sent to Sahil.
“You deliberately and with conscious motivation tried to spread a false and entirely concocted allegation from a responsible platform to raise an emotive issue, maligning Jamia with a view to misguide students…beside injuring the repute of Jamia, you motivatedly sought to incite affray on the campus by wrongfully communicating to the public, through the electronic media that the university has acted in an irresponsible manner by defrauding the collection of ‘funds,” reads the legal notice by the JMI to Sahil.
It’s a fact that Samajwadi Party had given 10 Lakh rupees to Jamia Old Boys Association, Jamia’s alumni body, to be used for legal help of Muslim youths arrested following the Batla House ‘encounter.’
When Sahil made the above mentioned allegation, he was referring to that money. Interestingly, Jamia Old Boy Association (JOBA) said that indeed it received the money but it denied that the money was meant for legal help of Muslim families affected by the ‘encounter.’
Talking to TwoCircles.net, JOBA office bearer, Javed said that SP gave 10 Lakh for the building of the alumni body.
Sahil, on his part through RTIs, has been trying to find out about the whereabouts of the money which was given by the SP for the legal help of ‘victims’ of Batla House ‘encounter.’
Sahil has alleged that the notice from Jamia is nothing but just an attempt to harass him because he has been filing RTIs regarding a variety of issues in the university, “exposing acts of corruption, done by the university authorities.”
“This notice is nothing but to intensify its harassment against me and targeting me and my career personally,” said Sahil.
“Can a university ask its student to pay this much amount for an alleged offence? Did any university ever punish any of its students like this?” Sahil questioned.
Sahil has alleged that his rights as student, have been regularly violated and he is being harassed at regular basis by the JMI authorities.
Sahil is an RTI activist has filed more than 5000 RTI application and has successfully helped many victims of mis-governance, human rights violation case and corruption in public offices.
He has sent a petition to the PMO, ministry of HRD and the Central Information Commission (CIC) requesting them to intervene in the matter and protect him from “harassment from the JMI authorities.”
“I request you to direct Jamia administration to stop my harassment and targeting me because of my RTI activism and journalistic publications and my social activism for ensuring the rights of other citizens. Please ask Jamia Millia Islamia about the real intentions and reasons of slapping this type of legal notice even though I am a regular student of the university,” reads his petition.
In the petition, Sahil has requested the PMO, ministry of HRD and the CIC to ask Jamia to “withdraw the notice and initiate its action, if necessary, within Jamia’s proctorial guidelines which give students many protections from such harassments.”