27-year-old Mohammed Jalees, who recently finished his MA in Arabic at the English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU), was in for a rude shock on Friday, May 6, when he was told he couldn’t appear for the PhD entrance exam at the university because of a police case registered against him.
According to Jalees, a student from Kerala, when he went to collect his admit card for the entrance exam scheduled on May 7, he was informed by the examination cell that he should meet the proctor Prakash Kona regarding his case. The proctor, in turn, told him that he is not eligible to appear for the entrance exams as there is a police case registered against him for conducting a beef festival and consuming beef in the university.
Jalees said that the news came as a surprise to him as he was not even aware that a police complaint had been lodged against him. He said that he was shocked to hear that the university administration could bar him from the entrance exam because he ate beef.
Recalling the events of the festival, Jalees told The News Minute, “On December 11, when Osmania University students conducted a beef festival on their campus, 25 students from our University also organised a solidarity festival on our campus, and I was one of them. Later we also uploaded a picture of the festival on Facebook.”
‘’The university administration noted the picture on Facebook and apparently registered a complaint at the Osmania University Police station against all 25 students who participated in the festival that day,” he explained.
Another student, who withheld his name for fear of action against him for supporting Jalees, said, “Jalees has been denied his hall ticket on the grounds of a police case filed against him for eating beef. We spoke to the officers of the Osmania University police station and they are saying that no such case exists.”
Jalees said that he has thus far not received any information about the complaint registered against him. He added that, on Monday, he submitted a letter to the university administration to provide in writing the details of the complaint registered against him.
When TNM contacted the proctor, he said that besides Jalees some other students who have police cases filed against them, have also been barred from writing the exam. “There is a police case registered on them for beef eating and conducting beef festivals on the campus. There were cases as well of sexual harassment, of one student abusing the Vice Chancellor on Facebook, and one student who was stalking another person. This decision was taken according to an order passed by the Hyderabad High Court on the beef festival.”
He added that the University had passed an ordinance disallowing students involved in anti-university activities, against whom disciplinary action had been initiated, from appearing for the entrance examination or taking admission for further courses in the university.
“I am not aware whether students were informed about this police case or not because the complaint was by the university administration,” he further said.
Jalees has little hope that university will allow him to write the entrance examination in future either. However, he added, ‘’If the university gives me a chance to write the exam, I definitely will. But there is no hope. By doing such things they are spoiling the careers of students and trying to exclude select students from the campus. But I still want to continue my higher studies here as I want to fight against the anti-student administration in EFLU.”
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