The murder of an ex AMU student in the AMU campus has brought to fore the sad happenings in the historical institution. The other side of the violent incident is that the slain student Mehtab Khan (hailing from Ghazipur district) was living illegally in the hostel for the last three years. Even though, he was suspended by the authorities but he did not vacate the hostel. He was also enjoying the mess facility of the University without paying a penny for that. Besides this, he also used to intimidate not only students and warden but even the provost. Nobody had guts to question him about his criminal activities in the campus.
Mohd Zorez, a Ph.D. student of law department has emerged one of the prime accused in the murder of Mehtab. CCTV footages showed that Zorez was leading a group of students with firearms when the violence erupted in that night in the AMU campus. He was nabbed by police at Aligarh on Thursday. Zorez was also an accused in a firing case at AMU in 2011.
It is said that Zorez was much closed to Iqbal Ali Khan who is the chairman of law faculty. He is also said to be close to Vice Chancellor Lt General Zameer Uddin Shah as well. The wife of Zorez was appointed as an adhoc teacher by the VC himself.
The previous VC Prof P K Abdul Azis tried his best to clean AMU campus from bad elements and succeeded in his mission to a great extent but ultimately he was made scapegoat. Azis was forced to leave before his full tenure by a group of teachers who had been damaging the image of this prestigious institution of world-famed as they are being dubbed as parasites who are clinging to the University to serve their vested interests.
It is said that the former VC Azis had refused to surrender before a group of teachers (Mustafa Zaidi, Hafiz Ilyas and Jamshed Siddiqui etc) and he became the victim of their conspiracy. This group of teachers used their influence to force the administration to set up a CBI inquiry against the former VC who was accused of irregularities in travel expenses to the tune of less than 5 lac rupees. However, the CBI found nothing against him as he was given a clean chit in the case but because of this he left the job prematurely.
Prof Abdul Azis was the man behind the AMU off campus centers. Interestingly a person who got allotted 1100 crore for AMU off campus centers was blamed for taking few lacs illegally and was kicked out by this teacher lobby who was opposed to AMU off campus centers as for them ‘off campus centers could weaken their grip over AMU’.
In fact, some teachers patronized and gave shelter to bad students who were not serious and sincere about their study. In fact, they are criminals in the guise of students. Such sort of students is used by these teachers who encourage politics in the campus. They use such bad-element (students) to settle their score with anyone who comes in the way of their vested interest. They even did not bother to target the Vice Chancellor.
Such goonda elements use their contact at the time of admission in professional courses , in examinations and even during appointments; in return these teachers use them for their own interest whenever they needed them. This angle can’t be ruled out in the recent violence in AMU that led to killing of two persons.
Most astonishing is the exchange of fires between two groups of students which continued for 15 minutes and 30 rounds were fired.
One can’t rule out the fact that the present Vice Chancellor failed to control regional groupism of teachers rather encouraged them who always create problems and malign the image of varsity.
AMU needs to set a purging operation for weeding out criminal elements that may be from student community or teaching or administrative staff. The sooner it is done is better.
Some teachers administrative staff and students are taking advantages of the gentle nature of Vice Chancellor Lt General Zameer Uddin Shah. Time has come for him to deal with such elements with firm hand. The VC’s recommendation for a CBI enquiry or probe by Special Task Force (STF) in the violence is a right move in the right direction.