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In My View

Disgrace: Ex-VC allegedly raped his employee as the registrar did his dirty work

Published : Friday, 12 May, 2023 at 12:00 AM  Count : 472
Syed Badiuzzaman
First I didn't believe the incident. So, I read it again and found it to be sadly true. Several national newspapers and other media outlets of Bangladesh carried the shocking news. A lower court judge sent a former vice-chancellor of a Bangladesh university to jail in a rape case on May 8 when the academic appeared before the court and appealed for an extension of his bail.

I have been in the journalism profession for 48 years but I never heard this kind of appalling news in such a long time. So, it naturally drew my attention. I did take a closer look at the drama and found it quite disgusting. Some university or college professors in Bangladesh may have been involved in sex scandals in the past but a vice-chancellor of a university never put him in this kind of shameful and awkward situation.

What exactly happened? Several media outlets of Bangladesh published very similar news on a sex scandal involving Professor Shahedur Rahman, former vice-chancellor of Khulna Agriculture University and a woman employee of the same university. The vice-chancellor was living alone without his family on campus a couple of years ago and the woman was delivering him home-cooked food on a daily basis under an arrangement made by the university registrar Khandokar Mazharul Anwar.

According to court records, the woman who was a personal assistant of the vice-chancellor filed a case accusing him of raping her on the night of December 16, 2021. She also sued the university registrar for aiding and abetting the sex crime. In the petition, the accuser alleged that both the former vice-chancellor as well as the incumbent registrar of the university threatened her with dire consequences including dismissal from her job if she disclosed the matter to anyone.

The trouble began soon after the woman started delivering him food at his residence in a university building where the ex-VC was living without his family. Taking advantage of the situation, he made advances to heron several occasions in an effort to develop an extramarital relationship. The woman reported the incident to the registrar and told him that she would no longer deliver food to the vice-chancellor at his residence.

The registrar then assured her that the vice-chancellor would not bother her anymore and advised her to keep supplying cooked food to him at his on-campus residence. After receiving this assurance from the registrar, the woman continued delivering food to the vice-chancellor at his residence and the VC allegedly raped her on the night of December 16, 2021, she complained in a case filed with police.

The woman was married and she had a family. In the First Information Report, she further complained that both the vice-chancellor as well as the registrar often used to incite her to get a divorce from her husband. She ultimately divorced her husband under intense pressure from the two and receiving an assurance from the ex-VC that he would marry her after her divorce from her present husband.

As reported in the local media, they also traveled various places together and introduced them as husband and wife. When the ex-VC refused to marry her, the woman filed a case against him and also the registrar of the university. Fearing arrest under the case, the vice-chancellor obtained an anticipatory bail from the High Court. When that bail expired, he surrendered before a lower court in Khulna and pleaded for extension of his bail. But the judge denied him bail and rather sent him to jail for a rape case.

The woman filed the rape case against the vice-chancellor on March 13, 2023, about 15 months after the incident when he refused to marry her. If he would   marry her, obviously there would not be any rape case against him. So, by filing the rape case, the woman retaliated against him for his refusal to marry her. The prosecution will have hard time proving it a rape case. The defense will certainly argue that it was a consensual sex between the ex-VC and the petitioner.

After a legal battle, the ex-VC may win the case in a court of law but he will lose it in the court of public opinion. A university or college professor is supposed to be a role model for students and all concerned in a society. And a vice-chancellor of a university in any country of the world being far more superior to them is held to a higher standard. He or she is the principal academic and administrative officer of the university.

Professor Shahedur Rahman should not have involved himself in the alleged sex scandal with the employee of his own university under any circumstances. He was supposed to be the protector of everybody of his educational institution. But sadly an employee of his own university needed to protect her honor, dignity and also her vitally important job from him. This man is a disgrace to the entire teaching community.

Legally it may be difficult to win the rape case filed against him after such a long time. However, there can still be strong cases of abuse of power as well as sexual harassment against him and the registrar of the university who aided and abetted the alleged crime. They both grossly abused their authority when they exploited a university employee for illicit sexual relations. They can also be accused of covering up a crime for they threatened the woman with serious consequences including dismissal from job if she disclosed the sex scandal to anybody.

The role of the registrar in the sex scandal is disgraceful. Why did he ask a female employee of the university to deliver food to the vice-chancellor while he knew that he was living alone in his residence? Didn't the registrar have the minimum IQ or commonsense? Did he not understand that this arrangement may give rise to various unpleasant rumors in the community about the woman as well as the ex-VC? The registrar could have easily hired a boy or young man to deliver the cooked food from the woman's house to the VC's residence every day. Yet, he didn't do so. Why?

As narrated by the woman in the case details, the former vice-chancellor of Khulna Agriculture University Shahedur Rahman, despite being in the position of power and influence, cunningly created a situation that forced her to submit to his immoral will and gradually get involved in illicit sexual relations with him. And the incumbent registrar of the same university Khandokar Mazharul Anwar did the ex-VC's dirty work acting as a facilitator right from the beginning in the sex scandal that led to the break-up of the woman's family.

However, as reported by the media, both are still continuing their job. Shahedur Rahman has returned to his old work place at Mymensingh Agriculture University while Khandokar Mazharul Anwar is still working at Khulna Agriculture University. They both pose a clear threat to the dignity and honor of female employees, students as well as the sanctity of university considered by many as the temple of learning. Both should be suspended from their job at least until the court reaches its verdict in the case against them.

Anyone working in the teaching profession or in an executive capacity at any educational institution must have academic excellence and also a good moral character. These people teach their students and co-workers not only academic lessons but also morality so that the young people can become standard-bearers in future. But sadly both the ex-VC and registrar of Khulna Agriculture University let them down with their inexcusable lapses.   

The writer is a Toronto-based journalist who also writes for the Toronto Sun as a guest columnist


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