‘I was never involved in communal thought, I became a victim of it’: Ex-law college principal booked over ‘Hinduphobic’ book gets SC relief

Thanking the judiciary for “giving him justice”, Rahman told The Indian Express, “I spent my life teaching students. I was never involved in any communal thought, I became a victim of it. The Supreme Court saved me from such a bad situation. The time I spent at home was a loss for the student community. I was hoping to develop the college on the lines of NLU. Unfortunately, due to politics, I could not.”

Rahman had been the principal of the Government Law College in Dewas for 7 years and the Chairman and Dean in the department of law in Ujjain’s Vikram University and Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya in Indore for over a decade.

Before Rahman was booked by the police, protests had rocked the college in December 2022 after members of the ABVP alleged that the college administration was condoning religious fundamentalist thoughts being promoted by some Muslim teachers. Rahman recommended a probe led by a retired district court judge and removed the accused professors from academic work for five days, until the investigation was concluded.

“I had initiated the probe to clear any misunderstanding. These were teachers with a clean record… students were fond of them. They were scholars. All of them have now left Indore,” Rahman said.

When the probe initiated by Rahman was underway, the police lodged an FIR against Farhat Khan, the book’s publisher Amar Law Publications, Rahman, and assistant prof Mirza Mojiz Baig based on a complaint by Lucky Adiwal, a second-semester LLM student of the college. They were booked under sections 153A (promoting enmity on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence) and 295A (malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class), among other IPC provisions.

Adiwal’s complaint lodged with the Bhawarkuan police station, Indore, stated that a book titled “Collective Violence and Criminal Justice System written by the one Khan based upon false and baseless facts, intended to harm the public peace; integrity of the nation and religious cordiality”.

Rahman claimed the book was procured before his tenure which began in 2019. “At the time, I didn’t even know what the book was about. Now we know it was Dr Khan’s book. She was my former student and had written that book based on newspaper reports. She is now undergoing dialysis,” he said.

Rahman said he believes that “most of the Hindu community and students stood with him”. “Some miscreants created that situation… I can say this doesn’t bode well for the country’s academic institutions. My family was shocked during the incident. However, I did not receive any threats because of the support,” said Rahman.

Baig said, “There were social consequences because of this case. I am glad the Supreme Court has given us relief.”

With the case a thing of the past, Rahman plans to resume teaching. “I could not apply to any other college as I was suspended. I will now take the SC order with me. Once again, I want to train judicial officers who will serve this country.”