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Kolkata: Mohammadi Tarannum has taught for 25 years, and has been vice-principal and teacher-in-charge of Surendranath College in Kolkata since September 2007. On September 11, she signed a letter of resignation, after having been gheraoed in her own office by students for roughly 23 hours. She says the students drafted the letter for her and forced her to sign it.

After she left under police protection, a section of students led by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, went into her chamber, lit incense sticks and sprinkled Ganga water. They said they were purifying it. Then they put up posters demanding the resignation she had already been made to sign.

“I heard so much abuse, so many obscene remarks involving caste, religion and politics from students that I fell ill for two days,” Tarannum told The Wire. “They abused me, mocked me and made all sorts of offensive remarks. Even after being subjected to such extreme mental torture, I have decided that I will not resign unless they kill me.”

Rajat Agar, a fourth-year student who was a part of the agitation denied the allegation. “What the vice-principal has been claiming is false. She was not pressured,” he said.

The college, founded........

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