FIR against Aligarh varsity officials in gay teacher case

ALIGARH - Acting on court orders, a first information report (FIR) has been registered against four Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) officials and some journalists for breaching the privacy of gay varsity teacher S.R. Siras, who was found dead Wednesday, police said Saturday.

Siras was filmed in a consensual homosexual act with a rickshaw puller in his room in the AMU premises and was suspended from the university in February for \”gross misconduct\”.

He had filed a case in the chief judicial magistrate\’s (CJM) court accusing the AMU officials and some journalists of intruding into his privacy by carrying out a sting operation on him.

\”Four AMU officials - Zubair Khan (proctor), Farheed Ahmad Khan (deputy proctor), Rahat Abrar (public relations officer), N.A.K. Durrani (media adviser) and three local journalists have been booked under multiple sections of the Indian Penal Code,\” police Inspector Ghanshyam Singh told reporters here.

\”They have been booked under several sections including, 347 (wrongful confinement), 355 (assault with intent to dishonour person), 452 (house trespass), 506 (criminal intimidation), 120 B (criminal conspiracy),\” he added.

The case was registered late Friday on the directions of the court.

\”The certified copy of the CJM court\’s order was issued Friday itself, directing the police to register the case against the varsity officials and journalists of local TV channels,\” Siras\’s counsel Satyendra Chauhan told IANS.

Siras had also moved the high court against his suspension. The court had stayed his suspension as well as the varsity\’s order of vacating his official accommodation on April 1.

Siras was associated with the AMU since 1988 as a lecturer of Marathi and was promoted as reader in 2003 under the Career Advancement