Subject : Letter of Appeal to bring to notice the unjust suspension of three student in IIST

Sir/Ma'am
We, the students of IIST write this letter of appeal to bring to your notice, the unjust and arbitrary
suspension of three of our fellow students against whom disciplinary action for a trivial matter has been
taken by the institute in a very biased manner.
Students have tried all the possibilities to communicate with the administration but they have been very
rigid and unwilling to listen to the students/ eyewitnesses point of view.
We describe the sequence of events which led to this disciplinary action against the three students.

On Tuesday, 19 August 2014 around 1930 hrs - 1945 hrs . There were two queues of third years B.Tech
students who were taking their food and some of them were still in the queue waiting for their chance.
Around 1945 hrs the current first years started coming in the mess . The queue became so long that it
reached the incoming gate of the mess. Then, the mess supervisor Mr. Arun started picking few first
years and tried to bring them forward than the third years who were already waiting for last 15 mins.
Mr. Anurag Mishra ( one of the suspended students ), a third year student who was already waiting ,
asked Mr. Arun "We have been waiting here in the queue much before them , how can you send these
people ahead of us , we are supposed to get food earlier ? ". Mr. Arun quoted in a very rude manner
"I'm the mess supervisor and I have authority of doing anything, you don't play game with me" and
then Anurag replied very politely " Sir ! This is not the way to talk. I'm talking to you nicely and you too
must be nice to me" and whole conversation ended there. The mess supervisor informed Rajeevan sir,
Faculty warden of first years about the incident. Rajeevan sir came in the mess and asked for the ID-card
of Anurag Mishra. He was pointed out from a video filmed by the mess supervisor of the queue after the
incident in which Anurag Mishra and Rohit Potla ( the second suspended student ) were standing in the
queue.
Anurag Mishra told that he did not have his ID-card so he left his food and went with Rohit Potla to get
his ID-card from Dhruva, the third year hostel and then they met Rajeevan Sir, infront of Dhruva. After
seeing Anurag, Rohit Potla and Varun (one of the eyewitnesses ) talking with Rajeevan sir the people
who were crossing by started gathering around them. Most of the third years tried expressing their
viewpoint about what happened in the mess with Mr. Arun. There was a lot of background noise due to
which Rajeevan sir started shouting at Anurag and Rohit Potla that " You must not fight with the mess
people". Anurag was repeatedly trying to clarify what happened in the mess, he was also saying to the
Rajeevan sir that " you are only listening to Mr. Arun and not trying to hear what i am saying ". Manas
(the third suspended student) , who was one amongst the gathering and an eyewitness to the last mess
case, tried to clarify that it was not a fight and it was just an mild argument. Then Rajeevan sir said to
Manas " I am not talking to you " , in a very loud voice and pointing his finger to Manas, which he felt
humiliating . Then Manas said politely " Sir, please don't point finger at me " to this Dr. Rajeevan said to
Manas " I am a professor and i will show finger at you ". As a reply Manas raised his voice and said
"This is not a way you talk ". The background noise was rising up. Seeing this situation, the third years
took Manas into the Hostel. But, as Manas entered the hostel, Dr. Rajeevan chased him and asked for
his ID-card. Manas replied that "Sir, I don't have my ID-card right now." At the time, all the people
around both of them were trying to prevent further discussion between them by apologising from
Manas' side. After that Manas left the place and Rajeevan sir shouted "I have not taught you, you don't
know my power. Show me your ID-card and i will ruin your career." and this whole conversation was
witnessed by the undersigned.
After that the eyewitnesses decided to write a letter to all the Deans, HOD's, Registrar and Director of
IIST addressing these incidents.
Around 2300 hrs, Rajeevan sir and Anindya Das Gupta sir called Anurag, Rohit Potla and Manas in front
of Dhruva Hostel. The three students apologised for the unfortunate incident that had happened but
they were also afraid of the threat that Dr. Rajeevan had made to Manas. All the three students
apologised before them for more than half an hour. The students thought that Rajeevan sir would not
pursue this issue any further.
So, the letter which was planned to be sent to all the Deans, HOD's, Registrar and Director of IIST was
only addressing the incident which happened mess, Rajeevan sir's issue was deliberately not included
because the students felt that this issue was resolved personally with Dr. Rajeevan which the students
felt as the best course of action.
On Wednesday, 20 August, 2014 around 1400 hrs Manas, Rohit Potla and Anurag were informed about
the Disciplinary Committee meeting scheduled around 1500 hrs.
The committee consisted of
Dr. Chandrasekhar-Registrar,
Dr. Thomas Kurien-Dean R&D,
Dr. Kuruvilla Joseph-Dean Students Activities
Dr. Raju K Goerge- Dean Student Welfare
Dr. Selvaganeshnan- HOD Avionics
Dr. A.Salih- HOD Aerospace Engineering
Rajeevan sir and mess supervisor were called first for the meeting and their statements were taken by
the Disciplinary Committee. Then, the student were called in and they were asked about the incident
but a written statement was not taken from any of the three students. Believing that the matter
between Manas and Rajeevan sir was over, Manas did not think it prudent to involve the conversations
and the subsequent threats made by Rajeevan sir in the Disciplinary committee. Whatever the decision
was made - it was not disclosed to the students at that time.
The Disciplinary Committee has not revealed the statements made by Rajeevan sir and mess supervisor
till date (i.e. 23 August ,2014) which we feel is a serious breach of transparency.
On Thursday, 21 August, 2014 around 1600 hrs a meeting was called by Dr. Kuruvilla Joseph- Dean
Students Activities, to address the third years, In that meeting Dr. Selvaganeshnan- HOD Avionics , Dr.
A.Salih- HOD Aerospace Engineering were also present. The third years raised their concern regarding
the above issues and reported the incidents exactly as mentioned above. After this meeting the students
felt that their point of view had been communicated to the Dean and HOD's. The student felt that this
would be taken into consideration before any disciplinary action was initiated.
On Friday , 22 August, 2014 around 1700 hrs, when Manas enquired about the decision of the
disciplinary committee from Registrar, he said "i don't know anything about the decision regarding
you, go and meet the Director, IIST." Within 10 minutes , Rohit potla, got a call from the hostel
manager, informing him that a letter regarding his case has come to the hostel office. On receiving that
letter, it was found that it had the signature of Registrar. The decision was :
1. Anurag Mishra and Rohit Potla were debarred from the Quiz 1 and got 14 days suspension and this
incident will be recorded in their personnel file. The offense recorded was -obstructing the mess
supervisor from doing his duty and thwarting the first years from taking food.
2. Manas was debarred from the Quiz 1 and got 1 month suspension and this incident will be recorded
in his personnel file.. The offence recorded was that he raised voice over a faculty warden.
In the memorandum issued to Anurag Mishra and Rohit Potla, it was mentioned that the mess
supervisor, Mr. Arun tried to form a third queue for the first years which is factually incorrect on two
counts, The first- that he tried to bring the first year ahead in the queue which was already formed and
the second - As there are only two counters, it is physically impossible to form a third queue.
The student community feels that, the decision should have been made by listening to the eyewitnesses
as well as the Faculty warden and Mess supervisor at the same time which makes the incident more
transparent.
We feel that, the decision which was made without listening to the eyewitnesses will put a red mark on
the final report of the accused students. This will give a bad impression about these students wherever
they go.
This incident and the decision are a proof that a faculty can ruin the career of a student just because he
raised his voice after being provoked by the concerned faculty.
We write this letter of appeal as an act of desperation for you to raise concern regarding this incident as
the institute administration has stopped responding to our legitimate issues.