The Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru has asked a professor accused of sexually harassing a doctoral student to take “compulsory retirement”, The Indian Express reported on Tuesday.
The institute’s Director Anurag Kumar said the professor, who has been identified as Giridhar Madras, was asked to leave after the governing council recommended disciplinary action against him. Madras has taught at the chemical engineering department for the last 20 years.
IISc Registrar V Rajarajan and members of the council last week said the “process of disciplinary action’’ had been started after it came to light that the professor had made several sexually coloured remarks about the doctoral student and had called her relentlessly at night.
Madras is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology-Madras, and has received numerous awards, including the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research’s prestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar award in 2009, the JC Bose National Fellowship, and the IISc award for excellence in research.
In 2015, the institute sacked Professor S Durgappa after constituting an internal investigation on the basis of a sexual harassment complaint filed by a student. Durgappa, however, filed a complaint against Director Anurag Kumar and four other faculty members for allegedly orchestrating the case against him.
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