The Delhi Police on Friday booked another Jawaharlal Nehru University teacher for allegedly sexually harassing and threatening a female research scholar. This is the third such case in the university in the past two months.
“A PhD scholar from JNU filed a police complaint and alleged that she was molested, sexually harassed and threatened allegedly by a professor of the School of Social Sciences of the university,” Deputy Commissioner of Police Milind Dumbere told the Hindustan Times. He added that that the case was filed on Friday, soon after they received a complaint.
The JNU Students Union and the Gender Sensitisation Committee Against Sexual Harassment said the complainant had directly approached the police and that they were still trying to find out what had happened. The teacher who has been accused also told the Hindustan Times that he did not know of the matter. “I am hearing this for the first time from you,” he said.
Similarly, the university administration said they did not know the particulars of the case. “Unless a student files a complaint with the Internal Complaints Committee of the university, we cannot take any action,” JNU Registrar Pramod Kumar told IANS.
Last month, eight students accused Professor Atul Johri from the School of Life Sciences of sexual harassment. He was arrested four days after a police complaint was filed but was granted bail soon after, leading to several protests.
Some students also accused a teacher from the School of International Studies of sexual harassment in March, but the matter is still pending with the university’s internal committee.
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