Govt Dental College students accuse HoD of harassment

Samaan Lateef

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Tribune News Service

Srinagar, February 2

From car washing to buying household items, postgraduate students of Government Dental College (GDC), Srinagar, have to allegedly do every menial work of Dr Muhammad Mushtaq, head of the orthodontics department (HoD).

All six postgraduate students of the department are on strike for four weeks, seeking immediate suspension of their HoD.

They have approached Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking action against Mushtaq, who has been accused of abusing his students and forcing them to do his personal work.

“We have to pick him and his wife from the airport. We ferry his kids to school and take his family members to tailors,” reads the complaint filed in the CM’s office. The complaint has been submitted to the office of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti; Bali Baghat, Health Minister; Dental Council of India, and the principal of the GDC, Srinagar.

The students alleged that Mushtaq sends them to pay his bills, make bank transactions and wash his car. “To avoid confrontation with him, we have been doing his personal work. But we won’t tolerate it anymore,” they said.

The HoD is also accused of forcing his postgraduate students to work at his private clinic – Smile King Orthodontic Centre — at Karan Nagar.

The complaint against Mushtaq was filed after he slapped Dr Rameez Hassan, a third-year postgraduate student, in front of patients. “He slaps us and uses foul language. He beats us with sticks and uses foul language against our parents,” they said. Some audio and video clips show that Mushtaq has been breaching his official authority.

In several audios, Mushtaq is heard asking his students to pick him or his wife from the airport. Also, a video shows an employee of the GDC and a postgraduate student getting the generator of his private clinic repaired.

Mushtaq termed the allegations as baseless and said, “The GDC had recently constituted a committee on this issue and didn’t find any truth in the allegations. The committee findings were that the allegations were baseless. Had it been true, the college wouldn’t have given me a clean chit.”

He said these students were not good at studies and blackmailed their teachers after failing to do well in exams.

Mushtaq admitted that he would have sometimes asked his students to do his personal work, but that didn’t mean they should file an FIR against him. He said, “If a teacher asks a student to pick him up from the airport, it is not a big deal.”