A Ph.D. aspirant from Manipur has accused a professor of Visvabharati University in Santiniketan of molesting her. In another incident in Kolkata, a Class 12 student of a private English-medium school was allegedly molested by the principal in his chamber. The accused professor of the agricultural extension, economics and statistics department under the Palli-Shiksha Bhavan, Siddhartha Deb Mukhopadhyay was also the Visvabharati University’s dean of students’ welfare. The varsity authorities said they had started an inquiry against Prof. Mukhopadhyay, removed him from the post of dean and asked him to go on leave. Further, he has been asked not to interact with students on an one-on-one basis.
The student, who completed her post-graduation from Sriniketan campus of the varsity in 2011, in her complaint to vice-chancellor (V-C) Sushanta Dutta Gupta said that the professor of agriculture department had allegedly outraged her modesty when she went to his chamber on October 4 to submit some research-related papers, the university authorities said.
Meanwhile, a student of Orient Day School was allegedly molested by the principal when she was taken to his chamber for poor project work. According to the victim, she was taken to principal Jayanta Banerjee’s chamber by her geography and psychology teachers. “My geography teacher said there were several mistake in my project work. She also said this to the psychology teacher. Later they took me to the principal’s room who in turn asked them to wait outside as he would speak to me personally. It was then that he misbehaved with me,” the traumatised girl said.