Bombay HC Raps Police For Overstepping In Inquiry Against Professor For Referencing Govind Pansare's Book

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Friday rapped the Mumbai police for sending a letter to the Yashwantrao Chavan College asking its principal to initiate departmental inquiry against an English Professor. Inquiry was initiated against Dr Mrunalini Aher as she referred to a book "Shivaji Kon Hota", written by slain activist Govind Pansare, to pacify students, who had attacked another professor for their speech on venerable personalities.

Aher was part of a lecture on August Kranti Day, which was organised in the college and one Prof Dr Vinayakrao Jadhav addressed the students. However, a section of students were unhappy with the speech. They took exception to certain comments made by Jadhav against some venerable personalities. They started shouting against him and attacking him. In order to pacify these students, Aher referred to Pansare's book. This too did not go down well with the students and they started attacking Aher too.

After the incident, Aher claimed that the police wrote a letter to the college and an inquiry was initiated. A bench of Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Prithviraj Chavan told state advocate Hiten Venegaonkar that the police has exceeded its powers and hence the communication needs to be withdrawn. The state later informed the bench that the said communication has been withdrawn.