He was supposed to be rewarded as a teacher for identifying a flaw in the 2019-2020 admission process -- where an absent applicant was given 12th position in the merit list.

But Comilla University authorities thought otherwise.

Accusation was brought against Mahbubul Haque Bhuiyan, an assistant professor of Mass Communication and Journalism department, that he shared information of the flaw with the media, which the teacher outright denies.

A syndicate meeting held on Sunday decided to take departmental action against him, confirmed Dr Md Abu Taher, registrar (additional charges) of the university.

"A probe committee found him guilty in connection with leaking information about an absent candidate who secured 12th position in 2019-20 session admission test," he told our Cumilla Correspondent.

The move shocked Mahbubul's colleagues in different universities.

The B Unit test was held on November 8 in 2019 when applicant Sazzatul Islam was absent at the Teachers Training College exam centre in the district.

But the result published on November 12 placed Sazzatul in 12th position on the merit list.

This incident was reported widely in the media as the authorities allegedly called him for viva voce. People took to the street to criticise it. Later the authorities formed two probe committees; one for investigating the incident while another for identifying those who shared the information with the media.

After some days, the university authorities held a press conference and said that it was not a case of fraudulence, rather a student mistakenly put down the roll number of the absent applicant. 

"Even if it is done by mistake, there was negligence from the concerned teacher's part. The authorities did not take any action but decided to punish Mahbubul," said a colleague of the teacher.

"Is it confidential information? …Mahbubul, then member secretary of B Unit's admit card scrutinising committee, and his team should have been rewarded as they identified a flaw in the admission process ," he said. 

Dr Asaduzzaman, head of a probe committee which investigated the "information leak" is now the treasurer of the university.

"Our responsibility was to identify the people who exposed the information to the media. After analysing information and call records, we found Mahbubul Haque Bhuiyan guilty. So we suggested departmental action against him," he said. 

Registrar Abu Taher, also a syndicate member said, "The report was placed at the syndicate meeting, which decided to take departmental action."

Talking to reporters at the university, Mahbubul said he did not share information with any journalist.

"I want to know how I am involved… Make the probe report public," he demanded.

He claimed they wrote about the fault to the concerned authorities of the B Unit admission test, yet the absent applicants was called for viva voce.

"I wanted to know whether any step has been taken against those whose negligence led to the discrepancy and tarnished the image of the university," he said.