A female student of Kolkata’s Jadavpur University has complained to the vice-chancellor that a staff member sexually harassed her at the Technology Bhawan building on the campus.
According to the complaint, the student was sitting on the staircase of the building’s seventh floor along with her friends on Friday evening. All of them but the complainant went downstairs when they heard someone shouting at them from the fifth floor. The staff member then reached near the student, asked her for her name, department, and phone number, took her to the sixth floor, and allegedly sexually harassed her.
After the student narrated the incident to her friends later, they confronted the staff member once he came downstairs, leading to a heated altercation.
According to sources, classes are held only up to the third floor, and the upper floors remain dark after evening hours.
The staff member, who works in the mathematics department, has denied the allegations, demanded an impartial investigation, and urged the authorities to examine CCTV footage to establish what actually happened.
He reportedly explained to the university authorities that he noticed students sitting on the upper floors of the building that evening and approached them to ask about their identities. He questioned why students from the Arts Faculty were sitting on the dark upper floors of the building and asked them to leave.
The vice-chancellor did not respond to calls and messages from The Indian Express. As per university sources, he has directed the registrar to forward the complaint to the ICC and ordered that the accused staff member should not be allowed to enter the campus.
According to sources, the university authorities had given the student two options: to file a complaint with the police or approach the ICC. It is learnt that the student opted for the ICC investigation.