A professor of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) on Wednesday, 6 April, was booked for alleged offensive remarks made by him against Hindu Gods and Goddesses during a PowerPoint presentation.
Dr Jitendra Kumar was booked under sections 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups) and 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), as per an Indian Express report.
Kumar, an assistant professor in the AMU's Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, was suspended by the varsity after he gave a presentation that allegedly talked about the "mythical references" of rape.
The university issued a show cause notice against him for the incident and put out a public statement in this regard that said, "The Aligarh Muslim University and the Faculty of Medicine strongly condemned the content of a slide on the mythical reference of rape and issued a show cause notice to Dr Jitendra Kumar for hurting the religious sentiments of the students, staff, and citizens."
AMU also gave Kumar 24 hours to submit his reply.
The university added that it had created a two-member inquiry committee on the recommendation of the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine to look into the matter.
Kumar Issues 'Unconditional Apology'
Meanwhile, Kumar wrote a letter of apology to AMU vice chancellor Tariq Mansoor, saying that it was "an inadvertent mistake" and guaranteed that "no such incident will occur in the future", news agency PTI reported.
He also said that his intention was not to hurt any religious sentiments or a particular religion, and that the presentation was conducted "only to highlight that rape has been a part of our society since long".
Condemning his presentation, AMU registrar Abdul Hamid had warned him of disciplinary action. "You deliberately and maliciously played a slide in the PowerPoint (presentation) in the classroom under the heading 'Rape', so as to outrage the religious feelings of a particular community," a notice from Hamid stated.
Omar Saleem Peerzada, the public relations officer (PRO) of AMU, had said earlier on Wednesday that Kumar had been suspended due to the incident pending further inquiry into the matter.
"On the basis of prima facie evidence of misconduct and seriousness of the matter, Assistant Professor in the Department of Forensic Medicine Dr Jitendra Kumar has been placed under suspension pending inquiry. He has also been served a show-cause notice. Further action will depend on his reply," Peerzada was quoted as saying by ANI.
He also added that the university had a zero-tolerance policy with regard to such incidents.
(With inputs from ANI and PTI.)
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