Bengaluru: A former faculty member has accused several senior members of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bengaluru, including Infosys co-founder Senapathy Kris Gopalakrishnan, of caste discrimination under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, besides alleging gross financial misappropriation by the institution.
According to the complaint filed on 27 January by D. Sanna Durgappa, a 53-year-old former assistant professor at IISc’s Centre for Sustainable Technologies, members of the board and governing council, including Gopalakrishnan, allegedly conspired to terminate him from service, targeting him as he belongs to the Bovi community, classified as SC.
The complaint and petition filed at the II Additional City Civil & Sessions Court in Bengaluru claim that Durgappa was falsely accused in a sexual harassment case after he raised the issue of financial irregularities at the institute.
The Print has accessed a copy of the petition and the FIR filed at the Sadashivanagar Police Station in Bengaluru.
In December 2024, Professor Gopal Das, a faculty member of the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore (IIM-B) had also filed a case alleging caste-based atrocities against senior officials of the institute after a Karnataka government-led inquiry had found evidence of caste bias on the part of the senior management.
Earlier this month, a scholar from the Other Backward Classes community, Nilay Kailashbhai Patel, was found dead on the IIM-B campus, which led to allegations of caste-based discrimination and a debate around treatment of students and scholars from marginalised communities in India’s premier educational institutes.
The case against IISc has now refuelled the debate.
Also Read: IIM-B director, senior faculty booked on professor’s charge of ‘caste-based discrimination’
What the complaint says
The allegations have caused a stir in the technology corridors of India’s IT capital with several people coming forward and expressing support for Gopalakrishnan and other board members of IISc. Gopalakrishnan is a member of the institute’s board of trustees.
“This is very wrong. Government should ensure that innocent people in governing boards are not wrongly charged like this. The rights of all should be protected,” T.V. Mohandas Pai, former Infosys chief financial officer wrote in a post on X.
This is very wrong. Govt should ensure that innocent people in governing boards are not wrongly charged like this. The rights of all should be protected. @dpradhanbjp @PMOIndia @narendramodi @AmitShah @CMofKarnataka https://t.co/MAR4xXKLcl
— Mohandas Pai (@TVMohandasPai) January 28, 2025
ThePrint attempted to reach out to Gopalakrishnan for a comment, but the phone calls went unanswered.
In his petition, Durgappa has levelled several serious allegations against 18 members of IISc faculty. The list includes Gopalakrishnan, director Govindan Rangarajan, registrar Sridhar Warrier, and former director P. Balram, among others.
Durgappa holds a PhD in Zoology and was appointed as lecturer on 10 August, 2008. He was promoted as assistant professor on 10 August, 2011.
He made a representation under Scheduled Castes Sub Plan (SCSP) and Tribal Sub Plan (TSP) after allegedly being denied a separate laboratory and sitting area upon reporting for duty. Funds under SCSP and TSP are meant for support for research projects and laboratory facilities for SC/ST academics, he claimed.
The complainant claimed alleged that when he asked the institute director about the SCSP funds alleging misappropriation, the committee deemed the allegations untrue and he was fired on 11 August, 2014—the first time.
He added that to “exact revenge” on him a second time, the director then set up a “honey trap”, whereby a “married woman”, who was part of the institute at the time, alleged that he (Durgappa) called her “beautiful” & filed a complaint with the Sexual Harassment Complaints Committee (SHCC). Upon inquiry, he was removed from service.
On 18 September, 2017, the complainant approached the Union education ministry. But the ministry officials misled him, he claimed.
“In order to harm my reputation and create stigma that would prevent me from getting a job in the future, the director of the institute got the newspapers, Bangalore Mirror and Hai Bangalore, to publish the false sexual harassment case,” the complaint added.
Durgappa then approached the Karnataka legislative assembly, seeking an inquiry into the charges he faced, according to the complaint. He claimed that the legislative assembly probe found no evidence of sexual harassment and went on to say that he was “singled out” because he belonged to the Dalit community.
‘Rs 2,500 crore embezzled’
After the legislative assembly’s probe, the complainant approached the director in May 2017, and then again in October 2020, to be reinstated. However, he was not reinstated, and was threatened with false police complaints, the complaint said.
This, Durgappa claimed, was because he had sought information on the utilisation of funds specifically meant for the benefit of SC/ST academics. According to him, IISc was sanctioned Rs 96,94,20,000 for SCSP and Rs 48,28,35,000 for TSP between 2012 and 2016.
He claimed that the total funds received by IISc from 1970 to 2024 amounted to Rs 2,500 crore, which were “embezzled & looted by the IISc director”.
When the complainant questioned the director about the misappropriation of the funds, he dismissed the complainant from service, the petition added.
The institute has allegedly not hired a single SC/ST faculty member in its 120-year old history, it further said. “He (the director) is using SCSP and TSP to loot money for prostitution. Then he takes the money and travels abroad to get massages & completely misuses the funds.”
Durgappa also alleged that the director promoted all those who helped him in falsely accusing him of sexual harassment.
IISc is yet to officially respond to the complaint. Phone calls to the communications office were not answered.
Also Read: Why Karnataka’s Kho Kho world cup gold medallists refused cash prize by Siddaramaiah govt