Another sexual harrasment in JNU

Another case of sexual harassment of a woman research scholar by professor came into light at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), being third of its kind in the last two months. In the recent case a woman research scholar in her 4th year of Doctor of Philosophy ( PhD) from JNU's School of Social Sciences has accused Professor Ajay Kumar of sexual harassment.

The victim has filed a complaint against Professor Ajay Kumar in Vasant Kunj police station. The police have booked the professor under IPC's Section 354 and the investigation is going on. The FIR was lodged on charges of assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty, criminal intimidation, and word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman. The complaint was received on Friday, and a case was registered the same day, told police.

The student told the police that the professor had been harassing her for a long time but when the situation got out of hand, she approached the police. The university administration, however, said it had not received any complaint of molestation from any student.

The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) emerged as the second best university in the country in the recent National Institute Ranking Framework (NIRF) by Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD). However, incidences of sexual harassment of woman scholars by male professors have allegedly projected the varsity in a bad light. The recent incident comes a few days after another JNU professor was also charged for sexual harassment with eight JNU students filing complaints against him. The professor was arrested after days of protests by students of JNU but was later released on bail. After which another incident came fore in which one professor sexually assaulted woman research scholar under her allegedly while on a trip abroad to China.

“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. A case under sections 354, 506, and 509 of IPC has been registered,” said a senior police official.

 “She is a fourth year PhD student who has filed the complaint. The teacher is from the group of adult education at the School of Social Sciences, and had allegedly accessed the complainant's laptop also at some point to send inappropriate emails. He has also allegedly misbehaved with her. The student has not been able to make submissions either,” said Vijay Kumar president of the  Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) JNU unit. The accused professor cannot be reached for his comments.