Jailed Maoist Leader in Bengal Appears For PhD Interview

Kolkata: Maoist leader Arnab Dam, who is currently in jail in West Bengal’s Hooghly district, appeared for an interview in the Burdwan State University on Wednesday for his PhD degree in history.

Dam, who appeared for the interview under the watch of the police, is in jail in connection with an attack on the Eastern Frontier Rifles (EFR) camp at Silda in West Midnapore district in February 2010.

He was convicted in February last year.

Dam had cleared the State Eligibility Test (SET) after appearing for the examination from jail. As the prison authorities were reluctant to allow him to do his PhD, he sat on a fast.

After the human rights group Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR) took up Dam’s case, the prison authorities softened their stand.

Dam is known to be a meritorious student who cleared the IIT entrance test and got into IIT-Kharagpur. While on campus, he got attracted to Maoist ideology and absconded after his third-semester exam.

He was arrested in 2012 as an accused in the Silda EFR camp attack case.

Dam completed his graduation and post-graduation from the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) while in prison. Thereafter, he applied for a PhD from the Burdwan State University.