A female student of Jagannath University (JnU) has sought justice over alleged sexual harassment and emotional abuse against a teacher of her department.
She protested in front of the administrative building with a placard in her hand on Wednesday.
She submitted an application on December 26 mentioning the allegations to Imdadul Haque, the vice chancellor (VC) of the university, seeking justice.
The VC said the Sexual Harassment Prevention Committee had been given the responsibility of investigating the incident after the complaint was received. “If the truth of the matter is proven, there will be a trial.”
According to the student, the teacher called her and asked her to visit his private office on November 8, 2019. When she went there and raised the issue of work, he reportedly sexually harassed her.
Later, when she screamed and threatened to call the police, she was able to leave the place, the student said.
She also mentioned that, after informing the chairman of the department a few days later, the student was told that it was not possible to conduct a trial without proper evidence.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the department said: "The student verbally complained to me after six months. I told her to file a written complaint but she didn’t cooperate.”
When asked why she was demanding justice after so long, she said: "In the beginning, when I wanted to complain, I was threatened by my classmates with many things such as the cancellation of my studentship.
“I have been patient for so many days. But now my mental state is so bad that I can't even continue my studies. I can't stand this insult anymore. I want justice."
When contacted, the accused teacher said: "I reprimanded her when she came to the last class without taking part in any of my classes and wanted to know about the whole course, which is what teachers usually do.”
He added that the allegations made in this regard were baseless, intentional and not enforceable, and he wanted the university administration to investigate and bring out the truth.
On condition of anonymity, a student said: “I was in that class. The teacher used some harsh words against her because she asked about some lecture sheets from previous classes. I learned about other issues from the student’s own account. So it is hard for me to tell what actually happened.”
