Panaji, Nov 21 (IANS) The Goa Police will ensure the personal safety of a lady assistant professor at a law college in the state capital, who has been targetted by students groups for allegedly denigrating religious practices, Director General of Police Mukesh Kumar Meena said on Saturday.
Addressing a press conference at the state police headquarters in Panaji, Meena also said that the police are in touch with students from the VM Salgaocar college and said that no teacher or woman should have to face fear while teaching in educational institutions.
“We will ensure that nothing should happen to the professor. I have asked my officers to speak to students and concerned persons. In colleges and universities, such an atmosphere should not prevail,” Meena told a press conference.
“She is a teacher. A teacher should not feel fear of going to University and workplace. Any woman should not face fear,” Meena said.
The top cop was referring to assistant professor Shilpa Singh, who was caught in a controversy following her comments on conservative religious practices like wearing a mangalsutra or burkha on social media.
Singh has been targetted by right wing students’ groups and was also booked under Section 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings) after a complaint was filed by Rajiv Jha, a local resident.
Incidentally, Jha was also booked under 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 506 (criminal intimidation), and 509 (insulting modesty of woman).
Meena said that it was the duty of the police to ensure that there is no atmosphere of fear in any educational institution and added that women should be made to fear while going to work.
Thirty seven writers, lawyers, academics in Goa had also written to Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and expressed concern over the registration of a recent FIR against an assistant professor at a Goa law college over a Facebook post, describing it as a systematic repression of academic freedom and a “politically motivated” move to foment communal discord and to disrupt peace in the state.
–IANS
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