Mahbubul Hoque, university founder known for run-ins with Assam CM Himanta, gets bail | India News

Ten days after the Assam police arrested him in connection with alleged malpractices in the CBSE class XII examinations, University of Science and Technology Meghalaya (USTM) owner and chancellor Mahbubul Hoque was granted bail by the Gauhati High Court in one of two cases registered against him.

Hoque will remain in judicial custody in connection with the second case.

Sribhumi police had registered two cases against Hoque on February 21 over alleged malpractices during the physics examination in a school run by the Education and Research Development (ERD) Foundation, which he founded.

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His bail plea was rejected by the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s Court in Sribhumi, after which he moved the Gauhati High Court.

“Last Friday, we moved the Gauhati High Court, and after the first hearing itself, we were granted bail in this case. Apprehending that he would be granted bail, authorities had filed a similar second FIR against him. That will come up for hearing in front of a different bench tomorrow,” said Hoque’s lawyer, Angshuman Bora.

Following the class XII physics examination on March 3, some students of the Central Public School, Patharkadi in Sribhumi district alleged that they had been enrolled in Vision-50, a special coaching programme for competitive examinations run by the ERD foundation. Some students claimed they had been promised assistance in the examination hall to clear their examinations, which they did not get.

Hoque has been at the receiving end of several attacks by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma since August last year. The allegations raised against him and his university range from “waging flood jihad” by causing flash floods in Guwahati through construction work at USTM to wrongly obtaining an OBC certificate in 1992. Sarma has also accused Hoque and USTM of being “fraudulent”.