Students perform aarti with incense sticks in Mohammadi Tarannum’s office
Students at the college, which was set up in 1885 and is one of India’s oldest law colleges, had been demonstrating on the campus since Thursday, demanding that they be allowed to write their upcoming semester exams despite failing to meet the mandatory 65% attendance requirement. Claiming she was labelled a ‘Leftist’ before being targeted, Tarannum said, “I do have a Left background but I gave up my CPM membership in 2016.
Surendranath Law College vice-principal (also the teacher-in charge) Mohammadi Tarannum left the Sealdah campus on Friday afternoon under police protection, alleging she had been forced to sign “a resignation letter” after being detained inside her office without power and water for “two days”. Following Tarannum’s “forced” resignation, the protests turned into loud celebrations. I have all the documents regarding students’ attendance ready,” she said. Currently, I have no political affiliation” BJP MLA Koustav Bagchi, also the governing body president at Surendranath Law College, called the “purification drive” an “outburst of students’ emotion”. He alleged Tarannum functioned as a “rubber stamp” for Debashish Banerjee, a local TMC functionary and former governing body member, and his son Shibashish. Classes were hardly held, yet she barred students with low attendance,” Bagchi said.
“I appeal to the education minister and the CM to order a probe and identify the culprits… I want a proper investigation as the CM himself wanted a transparent and systematic process. “Absolute anarchy prevailed on the campus during the previous govt. Students were threatened and girls feared coming to college. There was no proper system to record attendance. He added he asked CU VC Ashutosh Ghosh to extend the date for submitting exam forms.