Authority of the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman University of Science and Technology has given a show cause notice to five students for sharing on social media published reports about teachers accused of sexual harassment. All the five students are from the department of computer science and technology, CSI.
One of the accused, Zobaida Nasrin, says that giving show cause for sharing published report cannot be acceptable. Meanwhile, the president of the investigation committee says: “If someone maligns a person and another person approves of it by pressing ‘like’ on Facebook, then both are guilty.”
Relevant to note, in April, accusations of sexual harassment arose against chairman of the CSI department, Md Akkas Ali.
When the event became viral, students boycotted classes and demanded the removal of the teacher. In this regard, a probe committee was formed with the dean of the science faculty, Dr. Md Abdur Rahim Khan and three others.
The committee submitted a report on 18 April after which, the authority relieved Akkas Ali from his post and banned him from taking part in any academic or administrative activity from Jan-June 2019 till July-December 2022.
Meanwhile, the show caused students are in fear and feel that they cannot talk to the media freely.
Admitting the sending of show-cause notice, registrar of the university, Dr. Nuruddin Ahmed, said: “After the status was shared on Facebook, it came to the knowledge of the university authority and a probe body was formed which suggested giving the show cause.”
President of the probe committee, Dr. Abdur Rahim Khan, says: “Writing objectionable things about the university is not proper; before sharing, it could have been raised with us.”