Examination results of students taught by Dr Abrar Ahmad, the Assistant Professor at Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI), who was suspended for allegedly failing "fifteen of his non-Muslim students", show that only one postgraduate couldn't make the grade and that too because he didn't take the exam.

Last semester, Ahmad taught the paper Automations Systems -- Code: EEM-107 -- in two courses of the Department of Electrical Engineering. These courses were M.tech Electrical Power System Management (1st semester) and M.tech Control and Instrumentation Systems (1st semester).

Atul Ranjan, an M.tech Electrical Power System Management (1st semester) student, had failed written against his name for the paper Ahmad taught because he was absent when the exam was conducted.

The Professor told Outlook there was no way he could have failed or passed Ranjan in the university examination, for the student had already been marked absent on the day of examination by Jamia administration.

"This could be because either he did not appear for the exam or because his attendance was not sufficient," Ahmad said, adding he hadn't failed a single student.

Ranjan, the said student, told Outlook that he couldn't take the exam because it was conducted after the university reopened in January. On December 14, following the demonstration against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the remaining exams were postponed and the university declared winter vacation till January 5, 2020.



"I could not go back to the University for exam because I was not sure of the date of the examination," Ranjan said. He rubbished allegations of "discrimination or communalism".

Atul, who failed two other papers, also added that he was busy preparing for some job interview during the time.

Ahmad, before his suspension from duties at the University, taught "Transmission and Distribution Automation" paper to the "Electrical Power System Management" class.

Maqsood, a student in this class, says no test or internal assessment took place in the current semester before the classes had to be called off owing to the nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of Coronavirus.

Another student of Ahmad’s, Abhishek Bahadur Singh, says he had never seen the professor discriminate against any community or misbehave with any student in the class.

What exactly happened?

Nearly two weeks ago, a tweet posted by Ahmad led to -- first outrage on Twitter and then his suspension from teaching duties at the University.

On March 25, Abrar took to the microblogging site and wrote: “All my students r passed except 15 non muslims, who ve to reappear #CAA. If you protest #CAAProtests, I have 55 students in my favour #caasupport. Majority will teach U lesson if protest not ends #riot. Due to #corona your symbols of protest be erased. I wonder why they hate me? (sic)” The tweet is no longer online, but a screenshot of the same is available below.