Freed on bail, teacher Mondal hints at rivalry between co-workers over private tuition

Hriday Chandra Mondal may have been a victim of a conspiracy for the sheer number of students seeking private tuition from him.

He made the claim while talking to journalists on Sunday afternoon. He was freed after the bail order reached the jail at about 5:30pm.

“My school is riddled with problems. I don’t want to dig deep into it now but perhaps some of my co-workers, who were jealous over the number of students turned up at my house for private tuitions, may have plotted this,” he said.

The District and Sessions Judges Court accepted his bail plea, the third attempt in 19 days, on Sunday.

“Those (students) who do not want to study may have hatched the conspiracy with my co-workers who were jealous of my success as a teacher,” he said.

Mondal’s spouse Babita Howlader echoed the same earlier.

WIFE DEMANDS SECURITY

Babita Howlader, the spouse of much-talked-about Munshiganj teacher Hridoy Chandra Mondal, asked authorities to ensure the security of her family.

She also demanded that the court deals speedily with the charges against her husband so that Mondal can return to work as soon as possible.

While speaking to journalists at the Munshiganj court premises, Babita, a nurse by profession, also expressed gratitude to all who helped Mondal secure the bail.

“My husband is the victim of a conspiracy. Since his arrest, my children and I had been spending days in fear and insecurity,” she said.

“I’d urge the government to ensure the security of my husband and my family from now on.”

“I don’t believe that the students could orchestrate such a massive plot by themselves. Some other people, within and outside the school, are behind it,” she said.

According to media reports, before the pandemic, Mondal used to rent three rooms to

provide private tuition to students. After the number of students declined during the pandemic, he started teaching at home.

She also alleged that some of her husband’s co-workers were jealous because of the sheer number of students seeking private tuition from him.

“He had been attacked twice before.”

According to Babita, even before the allegations were levelled against her husband, Mondal was harassed multiple times weeks ago.

Some unidentified people had hurled brick chips at him and kicked their doors at night and catcalled them.

CIRCUMSTANCES THAT LEAD TO MONDAL’S INCARCERATION

In an unscheduled class on Mar 20, Mondal, otherwise popular mathematics and science teacher among students, was discussing topics of science with a group of 10th graders.

During the session, some pupils made queries about the relationship between science and religion and secretly recorded the teacher's response on a mobile phone.

According to an audio clip they later shared on social media, Mondal had argued that “religion is a matter of faith” while “science looks at the evidence”.

On Mar 22, two days after the recording was made, the school’s headmaster told the media that students and other people from the community were demonstrating outside the school, demanding punishment for Mondal.

The teacher was subsequently suspended by the school. Later that day, he was arrested in connection with a case filed by the school's office assistant Asad.

Mondal saw his initial appeal for bail in the Munshiganj Judicial Magistrates Court on Mar 28 rejected. Later, on Apr 4, the District and Sessions Judge's Court also refused to release him on bail.

The handling of the incident was widely criticised with Amnesty International, the Dhaka University Teachers’ Association, and writer Dr Muhammed Zafar Iqbal all calling for the teacher’s release. Education Minister Dipu Moni called the handling of the situation ‘unfortunate’.