Imtiaz Ahmed/Guwahati
Gyandeep Hazarika, grabbed headlines after a video in which he was seen being assaulted by a Police officer in Guwahati for a petty traffic rule violation went viral on social media.
Panbazar Police Station’s officer-in-charge Bhargav Borbora was eventually suspended for assaulting the student of Cotton University, who was serving as a delivery agent for a company to meet his ends and bear the cost of his studies.
The delivery agent of Delhivery was assaulted because he allegedly did not stop at a police frisking picket at Fancy Bazar. A video of the assault went viral on social media leading to a huge uproar on the internet over police behaviour and accountability.
As luck would have it, the traumatic incident opened another vista for the hardworking young man. The University of Science and Technology Meghalaya (USTM) not only offered him a job but also a free education.
USTM Chancellor Mahbubul Hoque honouring Gagandeep Hazarika
USTM Chancellor Mahbubul Hoque appointed Hazarika as a trainee section officer at the university's Internal Quality Assurance Cell. Sources in the university said Hoque offered a handsome salary and an opportunity for Hazarika to pursue his Master’s degree in Business Administration.
“We are offering you these opportunities not because of sympathy or any other motive, but because we love hard-working young people with interest in studies. We hope it will help you pursue your studies sincerely,” the sources quoted Hoque as saying while appointing Hazarika.
Gyandeep Hazarika was serving as a delivery agent to meet the needs of his studies. His mother is also an employee of Assam Police, while he lost his father, also an erstwhile policeman, a few years ago. Hazarika stated that he had unintentionally violated the traffic rule “because delivery agents like us are normally allowed to go without frisking at police pickets”.
The police action was not only criticized, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma also gave a piece of his mind to the Assam Police on behavior with the public. “Police will have to change behaviour,” Sarma said.
The campus of the USTM, Maghalaya
“Assam police must transform into a force that serves and protects the people with dignity and respect, not one that uses unnecessary force against common citizens on the streets. Those days of unchecked power are long gone. Society will no longer tolerate the misuse of authority or violence against the very people the police are meant to safeguard,” Sarma had posted on X.
He further added, “It is time for the police to embrace reform, accountability, and compassion — or step aside to make way for a force that truly upholds these values.”
Opposition political party leaders and students of Cotton University demanded the dismissal of the police officer involved in the attack.
This is not the first time the USTM has helped victims of the administration’s excesses. The university had early in 2023 adopted the family of a seven-year-old victim of an eviction drive at Silsako Beel in Guwahati whose appeal to the state government to spare their house, went viral on social media.
The child’s house on allegedly encroached land of Silsako Beel here was razed during an eviction drive early in 2023. Hoque not only took up the responsibility of the child and his four-year-old brother’s education but also provided jobs to their parents in the university.
The USTM opened the first-ever private medical college of the Northeast – PA Sangma Medical College -- on its campus on the city outskirts, and has also been involved in many other philanthropic activities in and around its campus on the outskirts of Guwahati.
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