"No probe report was ever published and no actions taken on any. It's a farce in the name of investigation," said DU Treasurer Prof Syed Rashidul Hasan who headed at least eight of about 50 DU probe committees commissioned in the last couple of years.

"Actually we don't dig out facts but conceal them in the name of inquiry," was his candid admission.

The professor said, "We, the teachers, are not investigation officers and have not the required logistics at our disposal to inquire into incidents. So, what a probe committee formed by the varsity does is look into the case only perfunctorily."

In view of the relentless violence, corruption, forgery, sexual harassment etc on the campus of the country's so-called premier academic seat, he also suggested forming a permanent investigation cell.

Officials said the DU administration does not keep any record of the probe bodies' activities. Sometimes, the authorities are at a loss about who is probing what.

They said many an investigation committee does not submit a report. Perhaps, it is better too, as the handful of reports that manage to come about invariably meet an ignominious fate -- of being put in mothballs, in dungeons of oblivion, forever -- and only a precious few of them succeed in prompting any action or getting some attention to their recommendations.

DEVIOUS PROBE INTO DU 9/11
Referring to the September 11 attacks on an opposition student combine and considering its gravity, Prof Hasan said, "We hope this probe report would be made public, as people have the right to know the facts."

DU Vice-chancellor Prof SMA Faiz said the Syndicate, too, is inclined to publish at least the recommendation part of the investigation report.

The investigation body into the DU 9/11 headed by Pro-VC Prof AFM Yusuf Haider in its interim report on September 20 named three leaders of the BNP-backed Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) as the masterminds behind the day's violent incidents including ransacking of the DU Teachers Association president's office. Acting on the interim report, DU Syndicate, the highest decision making body of the university, expelled the three JCD adherent students temporarily.

The 9-member committee submitted its 'final' report on October 13 accusing seven JCD leaders, including the three, and one of AL-backed Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) of being the prime perpetrators of the crimes.

A meeting of the Syndicate on October 14 asked the DU Disciplinary Board (DB) to take appropriate action against those charged by the enquiry committee for the DU 9/11.

But sources said some top JCD leaders have been lobbying against any punitive measures being sanctioned against the accused belonging to their party.

So it was no surprise, they said, that the DB in its meeting on October 24 could not discuss the 9/11 probe report.

But the next DB meeting on October 27 with Prof Faiz in the chair did make a surprising move. It asked the DU proctorial body to re-examine the 9/11 incidents and submit a 'complete' report within two weeks' time, in other words, to do the drill all over and implying the investigation report to be 'incomplete'.

But, talking to The Daily Star, a member of the probe body, Dean of Social Science Prof Harun-or-Rashid, exclaimed, "I don't know what remains incomplete in our probe."

The university administration actually has no sincere intention to take action against the attackers on the rally of the opposition combine, BCL President Liaqat Sikder told The Daily Star.

He warned, "If the authorities try to save the Chhatra Dal cadres, the student community would go for very tough programme."

STALLING KHOKON MURDER PROBE
Two probe committees, one headed by Prof Hasan and the other by Jahurul Haque Hall House Tutor Nizamul Haque Bhuiyan, were formed to look into the killing of JCD activist Mahbubul Islam Khokon of the hall by members of a rival faction.

Khokon was beaten black and blue on September 15 and succumbed to his injuries three days later.

The committees that were asked to submit report within one week are yet to come up with them, even after seven times the allotted time.

On October 19, the DU treasurer said, "Interviewing students and staffs of the dormitory we have found some 12 students directly involved in the physical assault that led to Khokon's death."

He said his committee needs yet another week to finalise its report.

CAM IN ROKEYA HALL? NO
Two probe committees, both headed by Rokeya Hall Provost Dr Tazmery SA Islam, were formed to investigate the planting of a video camera in a toilet of the girls' dormitory last month.

The committees in this case did submit reports to the VC. But they claimed no camera was fixed in any toilet of the dorm. It was just a rumour spread by tabloid newspapers.

The reports are yet to be published.

The report of the 5-member committee formed on April 17 to enquire into an assault on Shahin Mollah and Baki Billah -- correspondents of The Daily Star and Sangbad -- besides ransacking of some medicine shops by JCD cadres, was never disclosed.

Even the 150-page probe report on police atrocities at Shamsunnahar Hall on July 23, 2002 was stowed away for good by the DU authorities.

The fate was the same for a horde of other investigation reports.

Commenting on this issue VC Faiz uses a diplomatic approach saying there is no official barrier to publishing a probe report if the Syndicate permits. Treasurer Hasan on the other hand is straightforward and says the truth is DU probe bodies do not reveal but conceal the facts.

Thus the DU adds a new definition to the word 'investigation' and lives up to it too.