“They made me unemployed.... In such a bad situation of my life, where there is no fault from my side, I plea adequate action against the so called university,” Mandal, who has a doctorate in microbiology, had written.

The governor had in August asked the higher education department to “take appropriate action” in the case.

An official at Raj Bhavan said vice-chancellor Ghosh had been asked on the sidelines of a programme on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti at the governor’s house on October 2 what the university had done to address Mandal’s grievance.

“Ghosh told us about the offer made to Mandal,” said the official.

Mandal, who had quit his fellowship at The Hebrew University in Israel to join Kalyani University as assistant professor, said: “A lawyer representing the university had approached me with the offer in August.... I rejected it. I don’t trust them any more and my lawyer had filed a case last week challenging the legitimacy of the termination letter.... They are behaving as if they are doing me a favour.”

This newspaper had tried to call up the vice-chancellor but his cellphone was switched off. He did not reply to the text message delivered through WhatsApp.

Registrar Debansu Roy said: “I don’t have any knowledge about any offer having been made to him.... You need to speak to the VC.”

Mandal had joined Kalyani University on July 16. Ghosh told him two days later that the appointment letter was meant for Supratim Mandal, who had been selected for the job, but had been mistakenly sent to him.

Mandal said the university would have to reinstate him in the same position or pay him the compensation.

Screenshot from The Telegraph

Kalyani University has offered to recruit as “guest faculty” a man whose job it had terminated on a day’s notice saying the appointment was a “clerical mistake”.

Sudipto Mandal, however, has turned down the offer and filed a case seeking Rs 5 crore from the university as compensation.

Vice-chancellor Shankar Kumar Ghosh had said, during a recent visit to Raj Bhavan, that Mandal had been told that he could join the department of molecular biology as guest faculty and hold the position till the university created a post for him and inducted him as a permanent employee, an official at Raj Bhavan said.

Metro had on July 21 (see picture) reported about the termination.

Days after he had been fired, Mandal had written to governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, chancellor of the university, seeking “appropriate action against the injustice” done to him.