Dibrugarh University's Professor Denies Allegations Of Playing Pornography Content During Online Lecture

Guwahati: Dibrugarh University's professor Kaustubh Deka, who was accused of playing pornography content during a live programme, has denied the allegations levelled against him.  

Deka stated that he had become a victim of a conspiracy and a completely unfair media trial.

''I have become a victim of a conspiracy and a completely unfair 'media trial' as some completely false allegations have been levelled against me, all those which I completely deny,'' he wrote in a Facebook post.

In his post, he said that on 20 March evening at 7:30 PM he was invited as a speaker on a Webinar organised by the platform '15 MINITOT XIKHYA', a forum run by mostly US-based Assamese academics.

According to him, the programme got over by 9, and by 9.30/10 pm News in a certain Assamese News Channel began to circulate that he had shown pornographic content as slides during his lecture!

''I dare anyone to prove it and I am hundred percent open to any investigation/forensic analysis of my laptop and all other devices for the same. I have already lodged a complaint with the Cyber Crime cell and I'm hopeful that the truth will be out very soon,'' he added.

While sharing some facts on the programme, he asserted that no such slides of any pornographic material were shared from his end, or from his laptop.

''A forensic investigation will establish it. In fact, I was completely unaware of the whole episode,'' he said.

He further informed that he had completed the webinar with long rounds of discussions, until news of him supposedly showing pornographic content had already reached certain media sources, within a span of maybe 5-10 minutes of the Webinar getting over!

In his second facts, he said that there's a screenshot of the Webinar being circulated that shows an objectionable page being displayed and my face on the side of it, adding, ''Now anyone familiar with Zoom knows that in certain situations it is possible for any other participant to pop up a screen and disrupt/troll''.

''This is a well-known phenomenon called 'Zoombombing'. Mind you, it was a Webinar attended by hundreds of college students of Assam with the links being widely shared. Now, we are gathering more information on participation rights, pattern from the organisers, as well as, asking it from Zoom as part of Cyber Crime investigation. So that IP address etc. can be traced,'' he said.

He said that during his presentations, his slides were lagging due to which he had to log out and log in again to continue.

The third point raised by him was that were eye witnesses accounts by participants, who are willing to testify that they have seen a suspicious account by the name 'F**k You' who shared that objectionable screen, which was online for some 5-6 seconds before disappearing.

He further informed that some suspicious accounts with fake names also disturbed the webinar throughout.

''There were repeated obscene noise (moaning sounds), someone shouting at me two-three times 'F**k you Sir' etc and the organisers had to keep muting them and requesting them to behave. In fact, at one point, someone with a foreign accent also apologized for the behaviour saying that the user has autism,'' he avowed.

He termed the incident a well-thought-out conspiracy, adding,'' I am completely open to all investigations and I fully deny all the false and baseless allegations imposed on me by an unfair 'media trial'. It is very unfortunate that the media channel didn't even wait 30 minutes to verify the facts, speak to either the organisers, or me, and went ahead with the terrible slander and character assassination of me''.

''It is also an assault on the institution of Dibrugarh University as they have repeatedly presented it as misconduct of an assistant professor from Dibrugarh University, without ever presenting the full story, without even pausing it once to find out more. Truth has become a victim of sensationalism once again,'' he added.

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