New Delhi: Over 500 academics, students, activists and civil society members were signatories of a public statement that expressed support to Sanjay Kumar, an assistant professor in Motihari, Bihar who was last week assaulted and attacked at his residence.On August 17, the Mahatma Gandhi Central University professor was dragged out of his home and thrashed with lathis. The assailants also doused him in petrol with the intention of burning him alive. While initial reports said that the professor was assaulted for being critical of the university’s vice-chancellor, a video posted on August 18 gave a saffron twist to the story.One of the attackers filmed the entire incident and Kumar can be seen forced to take a pledge saying he would not be critical of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. This was a reference to a Facebook post Kumar had made after Vajpayee’s death, stating, “Fascivaad ka ek naye yug ki samaapti, Atal ji anant yatra pe nikle (The end of one era of Fascism, Atal Bihari Vajpayee embarks on his final journey).”He is currently admitted in a hospital and is seriously ill.In the statement, the signatories said that the pretext for the attack on Kumar was the Facebook post, but as the MGCU Teachers Association had explained, the actual reason was the opposition of the teachers to the “corrupt and authoritarian conduct of the university’s vice-chancellor Arvind Kumar Agarwal”. The VC has been charged with a range of wrongdoings — from illegal termination of permanent faculty members, quid pro quo appointments, financial embezzlement and failure of the university to make regular payments to the New Pension Scheme, violation of reservation policy in recruitment of staff, implicating faculty and students in false cases, to partisan and authoritarian conduct that actively rouses public animus and hostility to the university teachers, the statement said.The statement adds:“We stand with Kumar and the MGCU Teachers Association and their fight for social justice, honesty and accountability by public officials, the autonomy and transparency of higher educational institutions, and the dignity and respect of teachers and students.”The statement said the Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government should reverse the dilution of charges in the FIR and addition of the charge of attempt to murder. Those identified by Kumar in his complaint must be arrested forthwith and judicial inquiry be instituted to look into the running of the university and conduct of the VC, it said.