College director sentenced to a month's imprisonment

Nagpur, July 27 (UNI) A court has sentenced the director of a local college of mass communication, already convicted in a revaluation scandal dating back to 1995, to a month's imprisonment and a fine of Rs 1,000 on charges of threatening an official of Nagpur University.

Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) L D Hulee yesterday sentenced Sunil Mishra, Director of the city-based Central India Institute of Mass Communication (CIIMC), for threatening the then Pro-Vice Chancellor, Dr Madhukar Rode in September 2003. The court, however, acquitted Mishra of the charges of abusing the official and obstructing government work, due to lack of evidence.

The court granted bail to Mishra on a personal bond soon after pronouncing the sentence, and also gave him 30 days to appeal against the ruling. Mishra paid the fine imposed by the court immediately after the ruling.

The prosecution said that Mishra had abused and threatened Dr Rode inside the main administrative building of Nagpur university after the latter had come out of his chamber to enquire about an agitation that some students were staging there. This was tantamount to obstructing a government employee while on duty, it said.

After a complaint from Dr Rode, the police had registered an offence against Mishra under sections 294 (using filthy language), 353 (obstructing government work) and 506 (A) (threatening) of the Indian Penal code (IPC), and later filed a charge-sheet. While convicting Mishra under section 506 (A), the court held that the prosecution had not been able to prove the charges under sections 294 and 353.

Mishra's institute, CIIMC, runs the Bachelor of Mass Communication (BMC) course of Nagpur University besides bachelor's and master's courses in journalism of the Bhopal-based Makhanlal Chaturvedi National University of Journalism.

On January 10 last, Mishra, the then Chairman of the university's Board of Studies (BOS) in Mass Communication, was sentenced to 12 years and 6 months of rigorous imprisonment (RI) and a fine of Rs.

42,000 for getting the revaluation records tampered for improving his score in a subject of LLB Part I examination. He has since appealed before the High Court, but has been removed as BOS Chairman.

UNI