Jahangirnagar University professor Kabirul Bashar has served a legal notice against Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University vice-chancellor Professor Md Abdul Latif, accusing him of plagiarising a research paper.
Supreme Court lawyer Md Tanvir Ahmed sent the notice on behalf of Professor Kabirul Bashar on Sunday, demanding an explanation and appropriate action regarding the alleged intellectual property law violation.
According to the allegations, the SAU vice-chancellor copied his 2014 research article and republished it under his own name in 2017 without permission from the original author.
Professor Kabirul claimed that Professor Latif used his research findings verbatim, constituting academic misconduct and a breach of copyright principles.
鈥楶rofessor Latif copied my article word by word, even he used same tables that I had used in my paper,鈥� Professor Kabirul claimed.
He further stated that the 2017 paper listed National Institute of Preventive and Social Medicine Professor Md Golam Sarwar as a co-author.
Explaining his initiative to serve the legal notice eight years after the alleged act of plagiarism, Professor Kabirul said, 鈥楽ome of my foreign collaborators noticed the issue recently and alerted me. I was not aware of it earlier.鈥�
鈥業f these thefts cannot be stopped, Bangladesh鈥檚 research and education sector will be destroyed,鈥� he said, adding that researchers would be demotivated if authorities would not take any action in this case.
Neither Professor Latif nor SAU authorities could be immediately reached for comments on the allegations.
