AMU professor poses as girls to lodge fake plaints against colleague, suspended

AGRA: A senior professor in the chemistry department at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) has been suspended for impersonating female students to file fake harassment complaints against a colleague. This comes after a months-long internal probe by AMU authorities with the help of local police.

University proctor, Mohammad Waseem, told TOI on Sunday: "After a thorough investigation, professor Riyazuddin was suspended."

During the probe, the AMU registrar issued the professor a notice and sought his explanation. An AMU official said that since the professor failed to respond for several weeks, the authorities took the step of suspending him "for indiscipline and making false complaints".

"He will receive only subsistence allowance during this period. Authorities have also barred him from leaving the district, until the probe is complete," the official added.

Riyazuddin, 50, had reportedly sent over 20 letters -- using the name of female students -- to the university's senior authorities last year, accusing associate professor Ishaat Mohammad Khan, 40, from the same department of "harassing the youngsters".

AMU authorities had thereafter approached police which launched a "clandestine operation to dig out the letter trail".

Cops began monitoring CCTVs of various key locations, and were taken aback when they found Riyazuddin visiting the local post office on a regular basis to post fake complaint letters.

A colleague familiar with the two rival professors remarked, "They've never liked each other, but this incident of using the name of female students to settle scores crosses a serious line."