In a yet another horrifying incident of organised mob violence, a professor can be seen being dragged out of his house by more than a dozen people. In the video, his clothes torn apart, the mob can be heard asking him if he wants to be “another Kanhaiya Kumar.” The professor has been identified as Sanjay Kumar, a former student of CSSS Jawaharlal Nehru University, and currently working as an Assistant Professor at the Mahatma Gandhi Central University in Motihari, Bihar. Kumar was let go after some people in the street intervened, but not before he was allegedly sprayed with petrol and was threatened to resign from his job.
The events leading to this criminal act are varied, or so it seems. On one hand, the professor, in a written complaint to police, mentions that he had posted something critical of Atal Bihari Vajpayee after his death on August 16. On the other hand, the professor has been a part of a sustained campaign against the Vice-Chancellor of the University and it seems the assault could have been an outcome of that. Two weeks ago, the teachers of the University had formed the Mahatma Gandhi Central University Teachers Association while the VC had refused to recognise the body. The teachers have been demanding the implementation of the reservation policy in the recruitment of non-teaching staff, and have been vehemently opposing the intimidation tactics used by the VC in other matters.
However, it isn’t just these two stray incidents that have been followed by the assault. Sanjay Kumar had been subjected to organized trolling on social media for his posts against the alleged assassination attempt on Umar Khalid.
The professor is said to be in a critical condition because of which the doctors in Motihari took him to AIIMS Patna. In the complaint, he mentions the names of Rahul K Pandey, Aman Bihari Vajpayee, and Sunny Vajpayee as those who led the group.
According to the Indian Express, the police has booked a dozen people till now under IPC sections 322, 325, 341, 147 & 148, 149, 365, 448, 506, and 120 B dealing with voluntarily causing hurt, wrongful restraint, rioting, unlawful assembly, kidnapping with intention of confinement, trespass, criminal intimidation, and criminal conspiracy. The booked people included Sanjay Kumar Singh (local bureau chief of Dainik Bhaskar) and the ones named by the professor in his complaint letter.
Meanwhile, a large number of people while sharing pictures of Sanjay Kumar on social media in tattered clothes and bruised face, arms, and legs, expressed rage against the assault and expressed solidarity with the academic.
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