The owner and chancellor of the University of Science and Technology Meghalaya, Mahbubul Hoque, was granted bail by the Gauhati High Court on Monday in one of two cases against him pertaining to alleged malpractices in the Central Board of Secondary Education Class 12 examinations, reported The Indian Express.

Hoque, a Bengali-origin Muslim from Assam’s Karimganj district, will remain in judicial custody in the second case registered against him on February 21. The bail application in the second case is due to be heard on Tuesday, reported India Today North East.

In the past, Hoque has been at the receiving end of several communal jibes from Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

In August, Sarma said that he was looking into the possibility of restricting students who graduate from the University of Science and Technology Meghalaya from competing for posts in the state government.

This statement came against the backdrop of the chief minister’s claims that the university was responsible for the flash floods in Guwahati on August 5. He alleged that the campus was built by cutting trees and destroying hills in the adjacent Ri Bhoi district, which triggered floods in the city. The chief minister accused the university of waging a “flood jihad”.

The hills of Meghalaya in the Ri Bhoi district slope into Guwahati. The campus is about six kilometres from the outskirts of Guwahati.

Hoque was booked by the Assam Police after students at a school run by his Education and Research Development foundation alleged malpractice during the physics examination.

Some students from Central Public School in Patharkadi had claimed they joined the Vision-50 coaching program, run by the Education and Research Institute, after being promised help to clear their Class 12 Physics exam in exchange for payments. They claimed they never received this assistance.

“Last Friday, we moved the Gauhati High Court, and after the first hearing itself, we were granted bail in this case,” Hoque’s lawyer was quoted as saying by The Indian Express on Monday. “Apprehending that he would be granted bail, authorities had filed a similar second first information report against him. That will come up for hearing in front of a different bench tomorrow.”

Also read: How communal rumours hid the truth about the deluge in Assam’s Silchar