Juta demands legal step against proctor

The leaders of Jahangirnagar University Teachers Association (Juta) yesterday met the vice chancellor and demanded that the administration take legal action against Proctor Prof Tapan Kumar Saha after investigating his "leaked" conversation with a Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) leader.

In the phone conversation, the proctor "incited BCL men to create unrest" on the campus, JU unit of Bangladesh Chhatra Union said in a statement, expressing concern at the proctor's conduct. Samajtantrik Chhatra Front expressed the same concern.

On December 18, the pharmacy department held a reunion but did not officially invite the proctor "by mistake". In that evening some BCL men and pharmacy students were locked into a scuffle at the programme over carrying a student to hospital.

The scuffle soon turned into a conflict between students of two dormitories, after a BCL man of Bangabandhu Hall beat up two pharmacy students of Mir Mosharraf Hossain Hall, leaving them injured.

When some 25 BCL men of MH hall met the pharmacy department chairman, Prof Sukalyan Kundu, he asked them to talk to the proctor.

Bashirul Haque, deputy social welfare secretary of JU BCL, then called up the proctor but Prof Tapan refused to take any action saying he did not know about the reunion programme.

He also asked the BCL leader to confine Prof Sukalyan, demanding justice for the attack. However, the proctor denied any ulterior motive, saying he just asked the BCL men to go to the pharmacy department chairman.