A female student of Jadavpur University has brought up charges of sexual harassment against a senior professor of the arts faculty. In an email addressed to registrar of the university, the first year post graduation student has stated that she is “disgraced, broken, and clueless” about her academic future in the institution. As she fears that the faculty member involved can harm her academic career in an “exponential manner”. However, the professor who has been accused has said that all allegations leveled against him are “fabricated” asserted that “it is a vile attempt to malign his reputation.
“The (professor) is the primary person involved in these incidents, and he along with his associates have harassed me during the ongoing exams both sexually and mentally, which has taken a toll on my mental health,” wrote the student in her email complaint the registrar and other University authorities. Copies of the complaint were also sent to the Chairman of UGC, the Chairperson of the Department of Women and Child Development, and the Officer-in-charge of Jadavpur police station.
In her complaint the student has alleged that she was “uncomfortably frisked” at the direction of the accused professor during her first semester examination. She has claimed that she was the sole female student who had undergone the frisking process. Matters escalated when she was allegedly taken to the authorities under suspicions of using unfair means during her examination. She has accused that the said senior professor of the department had then asked sexual favors from her, failing which she would allegedly be debarred from appearing for her examinations. “His forcible attitude shocked me as this was not expected from a Professor I respected and looked upon as my guide,” wrote the first year student. The first year post graduation student further added that after the completion of the exam, when she was mentally strained, two seniors of her department came to her and purportedly asked her to comply with the said professor’s demands.
However, the accused professor has denied all charges brought up against him, and has asked the University authorities to probe into the incident. “This is absolutely vile, fabricated and thoroughly a lie. I would request the university to conduct an investigation as quick as possible, and the truth should come out as soon as possible,” said the senior faculty member.
Partha Pratim Ray the Secretary of the Jadavpur University Teacher’s Association (JUTA) has concurred with the claims of the professor in question. “To skim through the events of that day, a female research scholar who was invigilating caught the girl cheating during her exam. According to the invigilator the girl had admitted in front of the class that she was using unfair means. She was then taken to the head of the department and given two options- either rewrite the whole paper or strike out her answers. The complainant had opted for the second option. The girl was asked to wash her hands as there were notes scribbled on them. He (the accused professor) did not even speak to her, neither was he the invigilator of the exam in that particular classroom,” said Ray.
As fallout, the ongoing semester examinations of the department have been stalled by the University authorities on Friday until further notice as the faculty members have refused to invigilate “fearing for their own safety.” “We fear that if students start leveling allegations of harassment against professors and research scholars trying to stop cheating during exams, nobody would be willing to invigilate during examinations,” said the JUTA Secretary adding that Jadavpur University has formed an internal committee to probe into the allegations.
