The authorities of the Bangladesh Agriculture University (BAU) have allegedly kept one of its senior teachers out of classes and admission duties for one and a half years without citing any reason. The "victim", Prof. Md Anwar Hossain, was the head of the farm structure and environmental engineering department in BAU since November 17, 2015. 

He alleged that he was sidelined after he detected plagiarism in the thesis papers of five students of his department.

On December 4, the BAU registrar’s office had issued two notices, requesting Prof. Anwar Hossain to reply within seven days why he was absent from the department since June 5, 2016, and directed him to handover some instruments of the HEQEP project to the department.

On December 7, Prof. Anwar Hossain replied to the showcause notice, stating that he was never absent from the department without permission. 

Regarding the equipment, Prof. Anwar Hossain said that he already informed the authorities on June 26, 2016, that Prof. Rashid and his associated had broken into his office and taken away the instruments. 

“If I remain absent from the department, how am I getting regular salary and other benefits? The authorities are not giving me any classes. I'm being harassed in different ways,” Prof Anwar told The Independent.  

BAU registrar Saiful Islam said: “We've received the reply. Now the authorities will look into the matter.”

Regarding the absence of Prof. Anwar Hossain, the registrar said: “Generally, the officials sign our attendance, but it's not applicable to teachers.”

Prof. Anwar Hossain was removed from his post when he detected plagiarism by five MSc students in their thesis papers in 2016. This year, he was relieved of his duties in the examination committee and holding classes, sources said.

The students (of the 2009–10 session) were Alamgir Hossain, Mahmudul Hasan, Nazmin  Ara, Razia Sultana and Showrav Islam.

Prof. Anwar Hossain said the students had directly copied materials from different sources like Wikipedia without citing references. The professor, in his remarks, said the students' thesis papers contained plagiarised material and such work should be rejected or re-done.

Sources said other members of the thesis defence committee—Prof. Ali Ashraf, Prof. Nurul Haq and Prof. Siddiqur Rahman—had examined the papers and given marks, but Prof. Anwar Hossain declined to do so.

It has been alleged that other members of the committee allegedly put pressure on Prof. Anwar Hossain to let the five students pass. 

Prof. Anwar Hossain claimed that the three teachers had verbally abused and harassed him when he refused to do so. He also claimed he had been harassed for hours to change the result sheet and sign it. 

He alleged that the exam controller, too, had put pressure on him.

Despite the complaint of plagiarism, the university authorities did not take any action against the students and duly published their results, he said. 

Sources said that on March 25 last year, Prof. Anwar Hossain had submitted a written complaint against the five students of his department, alleging plagiarism in their thesis papers. 

But just after seven days of submitting the complaint, BAU vice-chancellor Prof. Md Ali Akbar, on April 2, replaced Prof. Anwar Hossain as the departmental head, dropped him from the examination committee and withheld him from taking classes.

When the university authorities did not resolve the matter, Prof. Anwar Hossain moved the High Court.

The court on April 13 issued a rule, asking the university administration why relieving Prof. Anwar Hossain of his duties and the publication of the results of the five students should not be declared illegal.

The court asked nine persons, including BAU VC, examination controller and registrar, to reply to the rule within four weeks. 

But nothing has happened so far.

The matter is still pending in the court, and the university authorities have not taken steps to resolve the matter.

“The BAU VC has a connection with the five students. Even the teachers of my department are also involved. So, their results were published soon after they were caught for plagiarism,” Prof. Anwar Hossain alleged.

“I was first relieved from my post of department head. Later, I was kept out of the examination committee and classes. So, I went to court for justice. The case is still pending,” he said.

Even the 308th syndicate meeting, held on June 12 last year, stated that the removal of Prof. Anwar Hossain from his position of departmental head without issuing any showcause notice was "not done as per rules".

Besides, it was not logical to confer the post of departmental head to the dean, when Prof Anwar had filed a general diary (GD) against the dean.

Prof. Md Bellal Hossain, now head of the department, said: “He can always come and teach students. He stays away from the board of studies meeting where the teachers are assigned classes.”

“I'd say he should come to the department for regular activities. The court will decide about the fate of the students. There is no connection between Anwar's allegation and teaching students,” he added.

Regarding the thesis of the students, Prof. Md Bellal Hossain said: “As far as I know, everybody, including Prof. Anwar Hossain, had given marks to the students in the thesis papers. If there were any problem, they wouldn't have given marks to the students.”

“Two committees were formed to investigate the allegation of Prof. Anwar Hossain. But he was absent from the meeting,” he added.

BAU VC Prof. Akbar Ali could not be contacted for his comment on the issue.