Kolkata: Paramanand Toppannawar, the 26-year-old MBA student at a premier B-school who was arrested on charges of rape, will resume his classes from Monday after spending more than a week in police custody. The youngster was arrested on July 12 and granted bail on July 19. He was released on Tuesday.
"An emergency academic council meeting was held on Friday, and it was decided that the student will be allowed to attend classes from Monday. But he will not be allowed to stay at the hostel temporarily," said an official at the institute.
Toppannawar visited the campus on Thursday and submitted a letter and the bail order to the institute director, requesting that he be allowed to resume classes. He has rented an accommodation near the campus, where he is staying with his parents. An official said, "There was an intense debate at the academic council meeting on whether he should be allowed to attend classes or not. In the end, most of them agreed that in a course, where attendance was crucial, we could not bar a student from attending classes unless he was found guilty.
" A teacher said some council members had proposed that he should attend classes online, but it was not possible as participation was important in an MBA class. "Later, the institute can initiate an inquiry against him for flouting hostel rules but it has not been finalized," the official added. Another official said legal experts told them they could not stop the student from attending classes as there was no such condition in the bail order. But institute authorities are apprehensive of the sort of reception the student might receive and are trying to preempt any untoward situation.