February 22, 2022 5:41:51 am
DCP MM Makandar told the Indian Express: “We have registered an FIR and are investigating the matter. We will take appropriate action in the case. We have not arrested the accused yet.” An FIR has been filed against Professor Anil Kumar Saumitra, Regional Director of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Amravati, under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The complaint has been filed by Professor Vinay Sonule, assistant professor from the institute, whose contractual appointment was abruptly suspended on Monday morning. Saumitra, a former BJP member, has been a controversial figure and was suspended from the party’s primary membership in May 2019 for calling Mahatma Gandhi “father” of Pakistan in a Facebook post.
In his complaint, Sonule said that he was being targeted by Saumitra for several months now as he belongs to a specific community and that he had earlier raised the issue through an internal complaint with the institute’s head office in New Delhi. A committee from the head office of the IIMC in Delhi, an autonomous society under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, had visited the Amravati campus to conduct an inquiry in the matter. Sonule claimed that he did not receive any official communication from the committee regarding action taken on his complaints.
“Suddenly, on Monday, I received an email informing me that my contract has been suspended. The question here is if the regional director has the powers to suspend my contract. My appointment was finalised by head office in Delhi,” said Sonule, adding that this was “the last straw” in a series of instances of humiliation that he had allegedly been subjected to at the institute since July 2021.
The FIR stated that Saumitra humiliated Sonule in front of the entire staff during a function organised at the institute. After Sonule expressed disappointment over the instance, he was further put down by Saumitra, the FIR added. “After this, there has been a series of such instances where it was clear that I am being targeted for no specific reason. I was humiliated in front of my students as well as non-academic staff. I was removed from my post of in-charge of examinations on the day of the exam without giving any appropriate reason. My lectures were put on hold. Students were asking me when I will start teaching again. Even the smallest facilities such as office, printer, email access among all were taken away from me. But throughout this ordeal, I continued serving the institute and did not fall behind on my responsibilities toward students. All this, because I had raised complaints internally. But after the letter in the morning today (Monday), I had to take the step,” said Sonule who filed the FIR in Frezerpura Police Station. He had earlier submitted a written complaint against Saumitra at the same police station on February 16.
DCP MM Makandar told the Indian Express: “We have registered an FIR and are investigating the matter. We will take appropriate action in the case. We have not arrested the accused yet.”
Saumitra was unavailable for comment and several attempts to reach him via calls and text message did not elicit any response.
Sources at IIMC, Delhi said they were aware of the matter and that it was being looked into, adding a call will be taken on Tuesday.
Sources said that suspension of Sonule’s contract was not under the Regional Director’s purview and that senior officials in Delhi will look into it since IIMC Director General Sanjay Dwivedi was travelling at present. All recruitment-related decisions are taken by the officials in Delhi, they added. Sources stated that Sonule “will be given a fair hearing” before any decision is taken.
When contacted, Dwivedi said he was on leave and travelling and did not have the facts available with him “at the moment”, adding he would be able to comment on the matter once he returns to office on Tuesday.
Saumitra was hired by IIMC as a professor in October 2020. A former BJP member, he was suspended from the party’s primary membership in May 2019 after his post on Mahatma Gandhi in social media. The BJP had called such posts against the party’s ethics, ideas and principles, adding it had affected the party’s image.
About Mahatma Gandhi, Saumitra said: “He was father of the nation, but of Pakistan. The country had crores of sons like him, some were worthy, some unworthy.”
In 2013, during his stint as the editor of BJP’s mouthpiece in Madhya Pradesh, Charaiveti, the magazine had published an article ‘Church ke nark me nun ka Jeevan’, alleging sexual exploitation of nuns in the Catholic Church.
Complaining after his sacking, he said in a letter to Sumitra Mahajan, who was then MP from Indore and president of Pandit Deendayal Vichar Prakashan: “I have been treated like a criminal. I was selected as editor due to my RSS background and ideological commitment”. The letter was also copied to RSS leaders Mohan Bhagwat, Suresh Joshi and Suresh Soni, BJP leaders Rajnath Singh and LK Advani and state leaders including Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
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