By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
Aligarh: The two-member inquiry committee led by Prof. M. H. Beg, Dean, Faculty of Medicine and Prof. Tabassum Shahab, Department of Paediatrics, Aligarh Muslim University as its member, has submitted its report into the complaints of alleged ragging of a resident member of the Hadi Hasan Hall.
The Vice Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University, Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Zameer Uddin Shah had constituted the two-member inquiry committee to inquire into the allegations of physical and mental harassment and ragging made by Mr. Mohd. Javed Khan, a student of MBBS (III Year).
The inquiry committee in its report has denied any sort of ragging and physical or mental harassment to Mr. Mohd. Javed Khan and found the allegations baseless and fabricated.
The report made it clear that the complainant in his original complaint did not mention the word ragging. In his statement before the inquiry committee, the complainant admitted having tampered the contents of his application to the police, which was not in the knowledge of the warden. Javed has also denied any physical harassment, which some newspapers mentioned in their reports.
The report has said that the incident, which took place in the Dining Hall of Hadi Hasan Hall on August 19 last, was a simple case of altercation between two groups of students and did not amount to any sort of ragging. The police report also confirmed that the “incident” was not a case of ragging but one of the tussle between two factions of students residing in the same hostel.
The Vice Chancellor also directed the Provost of the Hall to investigate the matter at his own level. The inquiry conducted by the Provost has revealed that the incident was a minor dispute among students and there is no witness to support the allegations of Mr. Javed Khan that he was subjected to any kind of ragging by the other group. The report said that the allegations were fabricated.
The report of the Proctorial inquiry conducted by Deputy Proctor, Prof. Mohammad Khalid and Assistant Proctor, Dr. Salman Khalil, both from J. N. Medical College, has upheld the police report that the allegations of ragging and physical or mental torture are baseless and unfounded.
The Vice Chancellor, Gen. Shah has said that cases of ragging generally occur with the first year students while in this case the complainant happens to be a student of third year. He said that reports carried by a section of media are misguided and misleading.
He further alleged that the boy had filed the complain on the instigation of a staff of AMU, and that he will have an internal enquiry and take appropriate action against the concerned person, but refused to divulge his/her name.
Mediapersons stage walk out:
AMU VC had called the local media persons to clarify his stand. Seated along with Pro-Vice Chancellor and Registrar, Gen. Shah accused the media persons of trying to defame the university and added that they will never be successful if they so intend to. He further said that if required he will take necessary actions against the media persons/houses who continue with such malicious act.
Gen. Shah particularly named a local HT reporter, who was sitting in the hall, and read out his headline pointing to the fact that it was a quarrel between two groups and the reporter should have checked with the university before filing the story as the student in question is a third year student and so there is no question of ragging.
The said reporter, then got agitated and was trying to explain his position raising finger on the VC, to which Gen. Shah courteously asked him to not point fingers at him. Just then, as if waiting for the cue, media persons from the back seat first, and then all, stood and started shouting slogans against the VC, alleging hotheadedness and adding that “this is not army, but university”. The media persons then staged a dramatic walk out.
The scene turned chaotic as all attempts at convincing the media persons to return back failed.
When TCN later talked to Rahat Abrar on the chaos, the Public Relations Officer of AMU, he said that the press conference was called to clarify the university position and the misreporting. Asked if they think there is so much of misreporting about the university, why they don’t approach the Press Council, he responded that whenever there is any malicious or misleading content administration generally contact the Editor of the concerned paper and send rebuttal and explained that the day’s exercise was originally aimed at same purpose.