IIT professor accused of harassment by PhD student
The girl has sent a notice to the director of IIT through her lawyer in this regard.
Bhubaneswar: A Ph.D. student on Saturday levelled sexual harassment charges against a senior professor of Indian Institute of Technology, Bhubanewar (IIT-Bhubaneswar).
The girl, a native of West Bengal, has alleged that the professor was mentally torturing her after she got married in 2012 to her friend, who is also a Ph.D. student in the same institute.
The girl has sent a notice to the director of IIT through her lawyer in this regard. She has also written to Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik and Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking their interventions to give her justice.
Deputy secretary of the Odisha skill development and technical education department P.K. Sarangi has sought an immediate report from the IIT director in connection with the case.
“I have been a victim of sexual harassment since 2012. The professor always tried to separate me from my husband. This has pushed my husband to serious mental trauma. Because of the professor’s torture, my husband suffered from brain haemorrhage,” said the girl who is now staying in Bengaluru.
Earlier, the girl had approached the IIT authority. Debaraj Rath, registrar of the IIT-Bhubaneswar, said the Internal Complaints Committee, constituted to look into the sexual harassment, found the allegation had no basis and absolved the professor of all charges.
“The ICC found no basis in the allegation of sexual harassment. Unsatisfied with the report of the ICC, the complainant went to Odisha State Human Rights Commission and National Human Rights Commission. We have provided all reports and information to those institutions,” said Mr Rath.
M Pratap, the girl’s lawyer, said his client would file a petition in the Odisha high court if she was not given any justice by the IIT-Bhubaneswar authorities.