Hussain’s contract with the university was to expire this financial year.

An Asian American assistant professor at Indiana State University’s Department of Aviation Management has been taken into police custody after he was found faking anti-Islamic hate crime against him.

According to ISU police, Azhar Hussain, 56 faces felony charge for the obstruction of justice and a misdemeanor charge of harassment.

Hussain has been lodged in the Vigo County Jail and is scheduled to appear before the Vigo County Superior Court 6 on Monday. His bond has been set at $10,000 cash.

The ISU has announced through a news release that Hussain has been suspended from the university. His profile on the ISU official website has been restricted to users. According to the excerpt of his profile, Hussain is an Assistant Professor at Department Aviation Technology of ISU.

According to the ISU, the charges slapped on the assistant professor stem from a series of emails that were received on campus, with hate messages against Muslim community and threats of potential violence against its members.

The first hate email reportedly landed in the inbox on March 8 and it specifically targeted Hussain.

A few weeks after this, on March 24, Hussain filed a complaint alleging that he was attacked from behind by an unknown person at the College of Technology, while he was entering his office in the morning.

ISU police found after their investigation that four people who were in the vicinity where the alleged incident happened couldn’t verify the details provided by the professor nor did they see any suspicious activities or people in the area in the given period of time.

ISU confirmed on Friday that Hussain was recently informed about the inability of the university to reappoint him after the completion of his contract as he failed to meet the conditions of his initial appointment.

“Based upon the investigation, it is our belief that Hussain was trying to gain sympathy by becoming a victim of anti-Muslim threats, which he had created himself,” said Joseph Newport, ISU’s chief of police.

“It is extremely unfortunate that this situation caused undue concern for other members of the ISU community,” said Newport. He had earlier sent hate crime alerts after the first email and the alleged attack on Hussain.

According to ISU police, the Cybercrime and Investigative Technology Section of Indiana State Police and the University’s IT security engineer helped them in nabbing Hussain.

ISU Police also kept local FBI office and the Vigo County Prosecutor’s Office in the loop all throughout the investigation.

The investigating officers were able to locate the computers used for sending out the hate emails against Muslim community and found incriminating evidence to conclude that the emails were sent by Hussain himself.

Michael Licari, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Indiana State University said that the dismissal procedure of Hussain will start as per the policy of the university. He also confirmed that due arrangements have been made to cover Hussain’s remaining classes and administer final exams.

According to the Linkedin profile of Prof. Hussain, he was awarded BSC in Aviation Management from the Florida Institute of Technology in 1987. He also has an MBA in Aviation from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. In addition to these, he also seems to be someone who is keen in collecting online advanced degrees.

Hussain did his Ph.D. in Philosophy (Instructional Tech and Distance Learning) from Nova Southwestern University in 2012. He then went to Indiana State University in 2013 to get a second Ph.D. in Philosophy (Curriculum Instruction & Media Technology).

He has been the assistant professor of Aviation Management at Indiana State University for the last four years of which he was the airfield manager for the City of Kissimmee for 9 months.

He has also served as an airport operations coordinator at the Kissimmee Gateway Airport for five years and has spent less than a year teaching at Everglades University in 2011. Before 2011, he held airport positions at Orlando and Broward.