LUCKNOW: An assistant professor of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) was suspended on Wednesday for allegedly hurting religious sentiments through objectionable references to Hindu deities during a lecture with medical students.
Dr Jitendra Kumar of Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College was suspended after he was prima facie found to have indulged in “misconduct” based on preliminary facts. “He was issued a show-cause notice and asked to submit a reply explaining his behaviour. Meanwhile, the university administration has suspended him,” said Shafey Kidwai, in-charge of AMU Public Relations.
“The AMU administration and faculty 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. He has been asked to submit his reply in 24 hours,” the university said in a statement on Wednesday. It has formed a two-member panel to probe the incident and to suggest steps so that such incidents were not repeated.
Kumar is said to have made the reference in a presentation with what was deemed to be ‘objectionable references’ to deities. A case was also registered against Kumar in connection with the “inflammatory content” of his presentation during Tuesday’s class involving MBBS students of the forensic medicine department. The FIR was lodged against him under following a complaint by Dr Nishit Sharma, an ex-student of AMU, a senior police officer said.
According to Kidwai, the university received complaints from some students and the screenshots of the lecture presentation as they went viral on social media. He claimed the matter was dealt with utter seriousness.