MP Salim Osman again refuses to apologise to the teacher he abused

MP Salim Osman has said he will ‘never apologise’ to the school teacher he had harassed in his Narayanganj constituency.

Shyamal Kanti Bhakta, who was beaten and made to do sit-ups holding his ears on flimsy accusations that he had criticised Islam, was not punished for being a Hindu, but for his ‘atheism’, he claimed on Thursday. 
 
The Jatiya Party leader has been asked to apologise and also stay out of Parliament by Health Minister Mohammed Nasim for ordering the head teacher’s punishment at Piyar Sattar Latif High School. 
 
“I can ask for your (Nasim) forgiveness, but never from him (Bhakta). You are invited to come to our home at Narayanganj and ask me questions. But don’t ask me to apologise to anyone,” he said at a ‘views-exhange meeting’. 
 
“I’ve been asked to not come to Parliament, my question is… who is in charge of Parliament? The speaker or someone else?”   
 
The public humiliation of the teacher on May 13 has triggered countrywide protests against what is perceived to be vigilante justice. 
 
A government inquiry submitted to the Attorney General’s Office on Thursday said Bhakta was forced to quit his job by the school’s managing committee. 
 
The report also said the student who accused the teacher of insulting his religious sentiments, which led to Bhakta’s assault by a mob, has been incoherent in his statements to the inquiry body set up by the education ministry.

But MP Osman was critical of the report saying the investigators did not contact him for his version of the incident.  
 
“It becomes a crime to have the teacher do sit-ups… the High Court issues rules for it. But it’s not a crime if the teacher abuses students in his class. There is no justice for it there,” he said in an apparent dig at the justice system. 
 
He also claimed he had been helping Bhakta financially. “I gave him Tk 20,000 as pocket money.
 
“He later asked me to help him to marry off his three daughters so I gave him Tk 3 million for each of them which amounts to Tk 9 million. 
 
“He then wanted another Tk 1 million for treatment. I stopped communicating with him then.”
 
Salim Osman, who heads the trade body BKMEA, hails from an influential family in Narayanganj. 
 
His grandfather Khan Shaheb Osman Ali was a patron for the Awami League when it was formed. His father AKM Samsuzzhoha was also a parliament member.        
 
His younger brother AKM Shamim Osman is a ruling Awami League MP.