5 ‘plotters’ temporarily barred from coming to school
The headmaster of Basherbanda High School, who was convicted in a ‘false charge’ of sexual harassment on July 10, got released upon bail on Sunday as the court granted his petition for appeal.
“I am innocent but was implicated in the false charge due to a conspiracy,” said Md Shamsul Islam, headmaster of Basherbanda High School in Ishwarganj upazila of Pabna district, after coming to the school office on Sunday afternoon.
Classes will resume on Tuesday and the middle term examinations will start on July 21, he told this correspondent yesterday.
On July 10, a mobile court led by Ishwardi Upazila Nirbahi Officer Md Zakir Hossain awarded four months’ imprisonment to Headmaster Shamsul Islam on charge of sexually harassing to a class VII student of his school.
Claiming that Shamsul Islam was implicated in a false charge due to some teachers’ conspiracy, aggrieved teachers and students started demonstration and class boycott protesting punishment to the ‘innocent’ headmaster.
“On Sunday noon, we filed two applications on behalf of the harassed headmaster to the district mobile appeal court — one appeal petition and the other for bail. The court granted our applications and granted bail to the headmaster. The court also fixed July 25 for appeal hearing,” said advocate Golam Hasnayen, lawyer of the headmaster.
Additional District Magistrate Md Rezaul Karim, also the judge of the court, said, “The headmaster was granted bail on a Tk 10 thousand bond. As per the mobile court law, the convict can get bail if his prayer for appeal is granted.”
Following a decision in a meeting at the institution on Sunday, Basherbanda school managing committee yesterday issued a notice asking five teachers of the school — Assistant headmaster Md Rafikul Islam, assistant teachers Md Obaidur Rahman, Md Alam Miah, Md Abdul Matin and Abdullah Shamim — not to come to the school until the situation normalises.
“Terming the five teachers as plotters behind the July 10 incident, other teachers, students and their parents are demonstrating and boycotting classes. For the sake of smooth academic activities of the school, we have asked them not to come to school until the problem is solved,” said Md Abdul Matin, a member of the managing committee.
The teachers, students and the guardians who have continued agitation for acquittal of the innocent headmaster are also demanding punishment to the five ‘conspirator’ teachers, locals said.
Ishardi upazila unit of Bangladesh Shikkhak Parishad will form a human chain and hold a rally in Ishwardi upazila headquarters today demanding acquittal of the headmaster from the ‘false charge’.
-With The Daily Star input
