Suspended Indore college principal moves HC to quash FIR over ‘Hinduphobic’ book, says student had grudge

Student 'failed' in first-year LLM course & sought principal Inamur Rehman's help to clear exams, the latter claims. When he refused to help, student lodged 'false & baseless complaint'.

File photo of Indore’s New Government Law College | Sukriti Vats | ThePrint

New Delhi: Facing allegations of promoting enmity and hatred between two communities by permitting a “Hinduphobic” book in the college library, the suspended principal of Indore’s New Government Law College has claimed that the student whose complaint led to the FIR had failed “miserably” in his first-year LLM course and had sought his favour to clear the exams.

On being refused any assistance, the student lodged a “false” and “baseless” complaint, Inamur Rehman has alleged in his petition to the Madhya Pradesh High Court seeking to quash the FIR registered against him in December last year. ThePrint has accessed a copy of the petition.

The controversy began on 1 December last year when the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) protested on campus over the presence of the book, titled Collective Violence & Criminal Justice System, in the library. The ABVP claimed the book was “anti-national” and had “objectionable content”.

These objections soon turned into accusations of “Hindu hate”, “love jihad” and “anti-India propaganda” against the college’s Muslim professors and led to the suspension of several faculty members, as ThePrint reported earlier.

Rehman himself had resigned on 3 December, but was suspended soon after the state government set up a seven-member panel to investigate the allegations against him and other professors.

At the same time, the state police registered an FIR naming Rehman, another professor, the book’s author, Farhat Khan, and its publisher. This was based on a complaint by an LLM student — also a former ABVP office-holder — alleging that the book was “Hinduphobic” and its contents were anti-national, intended to harm public peace, the integrity of the nation and religious cordiality.

While the Madhya Pradesh High Court rejected Rehman’s plea for anticipatory bail in this case, the Supreme Court on 21 December granted him relief from arrest and also slammed the state government.

Rehman has now moved the high court to quash the FIR against him, alleging that the student who complained did so out of a grudge. The student, he mentions in the petition, was not part of the class in which the subject relating to Collective Violence was being taught.

Moreover, Rehman writes that no student in the second semester of LLM who is studying the subject of Collective Violence has complained against him or raised any objections over the book.

The petition also mentions Rehman’s statement to the higher education department, in which he said that the college had purchased the book in 2014, while he was posted as principal only in August 2019.

It adds that Rehman had informed the police of this aspect through a letter he wrote on 3 December, 2022.

‘Sole intent is to deteriorate image’

Asserting that he has a clean record, Rehman writes that during an academic career spanning more than three decades, he has taught and helped many students who are now judges in the state judiciary, and more than 20 who’ve earned PhDs.

The present case was “instigated against him with the sole intent to deteriorate” the image he has “earned while serving the society”, the suspended principal asserts.

The complainant, Rehman alleges, has falsely implicated him to satisfy a political motive and has abused the due process of law to gain fame. He also faults the Indore police for filing the “vexatious” FIR.

According to the petition, Rehman received a complaint on 1 December 2022 from an organisation, on the basis of which he took immediate action and directed five persons to go on leave. One of the five was also a professor of the college against whom specific allegations were made.

Taking further action, Rehman wrote on 2 December to the commissioner of the higher education department, suggesting that he order an inquiry by a retired judge. On the same date, he sent a letter to a retired district judge, asking him to head a probe panel. A day later, on 3 December, Rehman wrote to the college librarian to remove the book, the petition says.

Rehman adds that while his “prompt” action was known to everyone at the college, the complainant nevertheless approached the police to lodge the case.

(Edited by Tony Rai)