Chandigarh: As many as 500 female college students from Haryana’s Sirsa have approached Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office and state Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, accusing a professor at Chaudhary Devi Lal University of sexual harassment.
The girls have written to Modi and Khattar demanding the professor’s suspension and an inquiry headed by a retired High Court judge.
The students have sent copies of the letter to Vice-Chancellor Dr Ajmer Singh Malik, Haryana Governor Bandaru Dattatreya, Haryana Home minister Anil Vij and National Commission for Women Chairperson Rekha Sharma, senior state government officials and some media organisations.
The students have accused the professor of “filthy and obscene acts.”
Outlining the professor’s modus operandi, the letter has stated that he calls girls to his office, takes them to a bathroom, and “touches private parts, and (does) obscene things with us.”
When they protested, the girls were threatened with “very bad” consequences.
This has been going on for “many months”, but the professor has never been held accountable “because he gives a false impression of a person of high character”, the letter pointed out.
The girls added that the Vice-Chancellor “threatened to expel us because this professor is a person of immense political influence.” The Vice-Chancellor also reportedly offered the students more marks in written and practical examinations in an effort to suppress their allegations.
“The police are investigating… the university has its own committee which is probing the allegations. This is a serious accusation… there is no name on the letter but we will investigate this,” the university’s Registrar Dr Rajesh Kumar Bansal told NDTV.
Dr Bansal informed relevant CCTV footage has been handed over to the police. However, the girls have claimed the accused professor has already “deleted his indecent actions from CCTV footage of his office.”
