Syed Junaid Hashmi
Jammu
Accused of having knocked-off the turban of a class-IV Sikh employee, Head of the MCA department in Mahant Bachittar Singh College of Engineering and Technology (MBSCET) Vishal Gupta today resigned from the services, alleging threat to his life.
Following this development, the protesting college students called off the strike and would now be returning to the classes from Saturday. Vishal Gupta submitted his resignation to the Principal of College Dr. Anjani Kumar, stating that in the wake of lies of him having kicked and knocked-off the Turban of a Sikh employee Gurdayal Singh Chadha, he feels threatened and it would be unsafe for him to continue working as faculty member in the college.
About the incident of Turban of class-IV Sikh employee Gurdayal Singh Chadha having been knocked-off, the management of the college issued a statement early in the morning wherein they have completely denied that any such incident took place inside the college premises. “The employee is blatantly lying. No such incident took place. HOD MCA Vishal Gupta never knocked-off the turban of the class-IV Sikh employee Gurdayal Singh Chadha,” the statement says.
It maintains that Chadha has been removed since he had become habitual of misbehaving with faculty as well as administrative staff of the college. “The incident which is talking about is purely a creation of devilish minds. No such communal incident took place in MBS. Since he twisted facts and tried to create communal wedge in the college between different communities, his services have been discontinued,” said Principal of the College Dr. Anjani Kumar in the statement issued today.
Sources in the management told Kashmir Life that Chadha would not be re-employed since this incident has dented the secular image of the college. “He should not have created this story about an incident which took place some 3 months ago. He did it and we have no reason to believe, he won’t repeat this kind of act,” said a member of the management committee. Regarding the resignation of HOD, he said that the faculty member was left with no option. “We would miss his services. He was an efficient teacher,” said a member of the management committee.
On being asked, HOD MCA Vishal Gupta said “I have a family to take care of. I could sense how much anger there is unnecessarily among the people against me due to the lies spread by this employee whom I respected and loved as my elder. The college is located in a Sikh locality. My family pressurized me not to return to the work and I had no option,” said Vishal while adding that Gurdayal did this purely to blackmail the management who had thrown him out. “He used my name to blackmail the management and save his job,” Vishal alleged.
