Meghalaya: USTM Chancellor Mahbubul Hoque remanded to judicial custody by Tezpur court
Meghalaya: USTM Chancellor Mahbubul Hoque remanded to judicial custody by Tezpur court
Digital Desk: Mahbubul Hoque, the Chancellor of Meghalaya's University of Science and Technology (USTM), was remanded to judicial prison by the Sonitpur Chief Judicial Magistrate's Court in Tezpur on March 14 after being arrested by district police.
Hoque was detained after reportedly promising students that unfair exam practices would be tolerated.
CJM H J Kashyap heard both Haque's counsel and the public prosecutor's pleas and ordered that he be brought to court on March 18.
While the plea wasn't heard across the day, Haque's attorney earlier had also submitted a bail plea to the court.
The Gauhati High Court granted Haque bail on March 3 in connection with two cases filed in Sribhumi. The court also stayed his arrest in three other cases.
Haque, along with five Patharkandi teachers, was detained on February 22 in Guwahati and sentenced to 14 days in judicial prison. He was brought to Guwahati on February 28 and then taken to his home in the Ghoramara area.
The USTM chancellor, who heads a school in Patharkandi, Sribhumi, was detained following claims that unfair techniques were used to defraud students on CBSE class 12 board exams.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma slammed the USTM Chancellor for his "big fraud" past, alleging that Haque was embroiled in a dispute over his OBC certificate, which he earned fraudulently in Sribhumi in the 1990s.
A police investigation was launched against Haque for allegedly illegally obtaining the certificate, which was eventually annulled. The CM further blamed USTM and Haque for a "flood jihad" against Guwahati, stating that water running down from the university campus caused massive flooding.
