Jajpur: A senior lecturer of Chitalo College has been arrested for allegedly sexually harassing two students.
Police arrested Niranjan Panda, Reader, Political Science following a complaint by two students and registered a case under Section 294 (obscene act in any public place), 354 (b) (assault or use of criminal force to women with intent to disrobe) and 506 (committing an offence of criminal intimidation) of the IPC on Monday night.
Subala Majhi, a student, alleged that Panda used to seek sexual favours from students on the pretext of helping them with their projects. He would threaten to reduce their marks in examinations for not agreeing to his proposal.
“He has asked several junior students to spend nights with him. We have kept his call records and vulgar messages to justify our claim,” they pointed out.
Audio clips of telephonic conversations between the teacher and the students, and screenshots of WhatsApp messages have gone viral on social media.
Panda has also been accused of physically assaulting a student.
Ajit Kumar Ray, a Plus III Political Science (honours) student, said that he had contacted Panda over the phone on Sunday regarding poor marks awarded to him and 8-9 students in the fifth-semester examination. In reply, Panda asked them to come to the college the next day.
“On Monday, I went to the college and redressed my grievances to the principal who advised me to apply for re-checking. Later, he gave me a form to apply for the re-checking of my papers. While I was filling up the form in his room, Panda sir came and slapped me and told me that I cannot take any action against him as the police are in his pocket and if he wants, he can put me in jail,” Ray alleged.
He demanded immediate suspension of Panda for physically assaulting him in gross violation of the law.
Refuting the allegations, Panda said that he told the student that the fifth-semester examination papers were not evaluated by him. “I also told them that he can take up their issue with the Controller of Examination of Utkal University and assured them that the issue will be resolved. But he did not listen to me and started arguing,” he said.
Asked about the allegations of sexual harassment, he said he had no knowledge about the issue. “If the students had any such allegations, they should have reported it to police earlier,” he added.
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