Mumbai, Jan 19 (Mid-Day): Mumbai University Professor Neeraj Hatekar, who was suspended for speaking against the state of affairs in the university and the vice-chancellor, has been re-instated after students thretened to go on hunger strike.

The move occurred after a 10-hour meeting with the management council and the Vice Chancellor of Mumbai University, Dr. Rajan Welukar at Fort campus on Saturday due to which the Professor Dr. Neeraj Hatekar, Econometrics, Department of Economics, has been sent a letter of revoking his suspension today.

Prof. Hatekar was suspended on 4 January for holding a press conference on 20 December 2013, accusing the administration of the Mumbai University and the VC Rajan Welukar of mismanagement. He was then barred from stepping into his department for teaching or any administrative work.

However, many protests from students of Prof Hatekar against this move led the State Governor K. Sankarnarayanan to call the VC and ask him to resolve the matter amicably.

Hence the VC called a management council meeting on Saturday that started at 4pm and went on for 10 hours in which the management council requested the VC to give Prof Hatekar a chance to give his side of the story and also appointed an enquiry officer -- retired Bombay High Court judge D. G Deshpande to do the departmental enquiry of the professor.

Backed by students, the suspended professor continued taking lectures outside the Mumbai University (MU) campus gate at Kalina for three days.