Kolkata: Arnab Dam, the first convicted prisoner in the state to have attempted to pursue a PhD, was given an admission at the Burdwan University on Monday after his counselling was over. He is likely to start the course work for his PhD by the end of this month. Dam, an IIT dropout, was sentenced to life imprisonment after being found guilty in the Maoist attack at Silda, Jhargram in 2010.
On Monday afternoon, Dam—flanked by security personnel, was taken to the Burdwan University for counselling.His counselling process commenced after the University authorities stalled the procedure briefly. The bottleneck surfaced after the question of “course work” came to the fore. Following the stalemate, the state correctional home minister Akhil Giri and education minister Bratya Basu intervened to untangle the issue. On Sunday, he was shifted to Burdwan correctional home from Hooghly.
“The stalemate over my PhD seems to be over. It wouldn’t have been possible without the help of correctional home department and the University administration. Apart from that, thanks to everyone who supported my cause,” said Dam.
While the university vice-chancellor, Goutam Chandra, did not specify a date to commence his course work, officials said they are planning to start the course work this month. “I have spoken to the minister of the correctional services. We hope to get the official letters with details of the procedure soon. The department has assured us of security measures since he is a convict,” Chandra said.
“We have looked into the database of the correctional homes across India and we are yet to come across any reference of an inmate pursuing a PhD,” said Giri.
Dam, will have to appear before the University on July 19 for document verification. “We had nine vacancies and Dam was the first one in the list. Nobody has done him a favour, he made it to the list with his calibre ,” said Tanvir Nasreen, head of department (history) at the Burdwan University.
On Monday, Dam was taken to the Kadambini Ganguly seminar hall of Burdwan University. His session continued for about 45 minutes.
He provided the phone number and e-mail ID of the welfare officer of Burdwan correctional home to the University in case of an emergency.