Agra: A senior professor in the Chemistry department of the Institute of Basic Sciences at Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Agra, has been accused by a research scholar of “sexually exploiting” her for two years under the promise of marriage.
Based on the woman’s complaint, the police filed an FIR on Sunday under sections 69 (sexual intercourse not amounting to rape, where consent obtained by deceitful means); 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt) and 351(2)(criminal intimidation) of the BNS.
This issue has brought into focus an alleged a culture of teacher-researcher relationships at the university, which, say students, often results in mental and physical torture, especially for female scholars.
In her complaint to the police, the 27-year-old woman said she was conducting her PhD research under the guidance of the professor. Initially, the professor established a friendship with her, and afterwards promised to marry her. He then allegedly repeatedly invited her to hotels and his office and had sex with her.
The research scholar has also claimed that the professor took her to Khajuraho for three days and sexually abused her in a hotel there. A similar trip was to Barsana (Mathura) recently.
The woman has said in her complaint that after two years of “continuous exploitation”, when she asked the professor to marry her, he evaded the topic. When she threatened to make their relationship public, he allegedly threatened to end her career.
As proof of the “harassment”, the woman has submitted audio tapes to the police, which, she claims, contain intimate conversations between her and the professor. Besides this, she accused the lecturer of threatening to kill her and trying to destroy her mobile phone it (but he failed) in an attempt to erase the evidence.
The university authorities have sent the case to the internal women’s cell. Vice-Chancellor Professor Ashu Rani of the university said that they had received no official complaint from the woman so far, “…but now that the complaint has been lodged with the police, the university will conduct its own inquiry and if the allegations are confirmed, harsh measures will be taken”.
Students have insisted on complete transparency in the handling of this issue by the university administration.
Inspector Rajiv Tyagi, who is the in-charge of the New Agra Police Station, has said that they have registered a case based on the victim’s complaint. The charges are being treated as serious and will be processed according to the law.
This situation has compelled the university to address significant issues concerning women’s safety on campus, the integrity of lecturer-researcher relationships, and the accountability of the management, a woman assistant professor at the Institute of Basic Sciences said on the condition of anonymity.
For now, this incident has created a sense of insecurity among other female research students at the university who have intensified the demand for a transparent investigation.
“This is not a solitary case. We have heard of other such cases of professional and physical harassment by research guides in other universities as well. Sometimes such cases do come out, but mostly they stay under wraps,” a female student at the Paliwal Park campus of the university told ThePrint.
“The university administration should conduct an independent and transparent inquiry into this case. It will be easy to find out if the Professor was really involved in physical exploitation of his research student and if it is proved, he should be terminated immediately, regardless of what action the law takes against him,” said another student.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
Also read: Indian universities follow the same template on sexual assault—cover up, blame the victim