Compulsory Retirement For BHU Prof Over ‘Sexual Misconduct’ During Odisha Trip

Banaras Hindu University (BHU) has decided to send one of its senior professors, facing charges of sexual misconduct, on compulsory retirement.

The decision was taken at the executive council meeting of the university, chaired by vice-chancellor Professor Rakesh Bhatnagar.

As per news report, professor Shail Kumar Chaube was accused of inappropriate behaviour by the students of the university’s Zoology department during a study-trip to Odisha last year.

The students had alleged that Prof Chaube had passed vulgar comments and made obscene gestures while explaining the sculptures of the Konark Sun Temple during their Bhubaneswar-Puri trip.

He was suspended following the complaint and the VC had asked the varsity’s internal complaints committee (ICC) to look into the matter. In June this year, the executive council, however, revoked Chaube’s suspension with a censure that he cannot take up any future assignments.

The student’s body, affronted by this reinstatement decision, staged a sit-in-stir at BHU’s main gate and took out a march on September 14, demanding his ouster.

The students ended their stir the following day after a delegation of agitating students called on the VC and the varsity administration decided to refer the matter to the EC for reconsideration.

Chaube was then asked to go on leave till the council took a final decision.