Hridoy Chandra Mandal, a maths and science teacher at Binodpur Ramkumar High School in Munshiganj, has not been found guilty of hurting religious sentiment, said a probe report.
Professor Abdul Hai Talukder, the principal of Government Haraganga College, who headed the one –member probe probe committee, said that he had reached the decision after talking to all stakeholders in the investigation.
Professor Abdul Hai submitted the probe report to Prof. Nehal Ahmed, the Director General of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education, on Wednesday at around 5:15 pm.
Abdul Hai Talukder said he was given five working days by the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education on April 11 to investigate the incident.
He said that he had investigated the matter during a period from April 12 to April 19. During this time, he talked to the plaintiff in the case, the headmaster of the school, the president of the school management committee, the teachers of the educational institution and its students of class X, who had a quarrel with Hridoy Chandra Mandal.
The professor also said that he talked to all stakeholders keeping different things in his mind for the sake of a fair probe.
“Written statements have also been taken from 10 of those with whom I spoke. Evidence of blasphemy was not found in any of their statement”, he mentioned.
He further said that he also checked the audio record, in which nothing is found to be hurting anyone’s religious sentiment.
“On that day, the maths and science teacher had talked about the Islam, Hindu and Christian religions, but he did not speak anything, which could hurt any religious sentiment”, Abdul Hai Talukder said
He mentioned that some of the students admitted that they had recorded the class lecture intentionally and in a pre-planned way.
“Those students realized their mistake and also apologized for this. However, no one has given any information about whether anyone from outside has done the work with them”, he added.
However, jealousy of other teachers may have played a role in this incident, said investigating officer Professor Hai.
Earlier, on March 22, an office assistant named Asad of the school filed a case accusing Hridoy Chandra Mandal of hurting Islam through his lecture. Later police arrested the teacher the same day. He was denied bail by the court on March 23 and 28. However, Hridoy Chandra Mandal was later released on bail on April 10.
In the circumstances, on April 11 Munshiganj Government Haraganga College Principal Abdul Hai Talukder was given the responsibility of investigating by the Directorate of the Secondary and Higher Education. He was asked to submit an investigation report within five working days.
