GBU faculty member alleges harassment by registrar, goes to cops

Noida: A 43-year-old senior faculty member of Gautam Buddh University, who had earlier worked as a department head, registered a complaint against the university registrar for mental and sexual harassment, alleging that he made “unofficial and indecent demands”. She also alleged that the registrar had asked her to go to his office without a valid reason when she sought leaves.
The senior faculty member also accused him of commenting on her physique and the way she dresses. She alleged he demanded gold.
According to her, after returning from a 10-month leave owing to a foreign assignment and despite not having withdrawn salary for the period, the university has not paid her salary for June and July after rejoining. She claimed the registrar sent her a message, seeking to settle the matter outside the office and withdraw the complaint against him. She said she had to go to Saudi Arabia for the assignment in a foreign university in September 2019, for which her leave was sanctioned by former registrar, when the accused — SN Tewari — was deputy registrar.
“I informed the registrar about his gold demand, but not about his lewd comment and intentions. The registrar advised me not to pick Tewari’s calls and I blocked his number. But he continued to harass me asking for several documents…” she has written in her complaint to the DCP (women’s safety). The woman said after returning in June, she learnt the accused had joined as officiating registrar. Then she wrote to the vice chancellor about his unofficial demands on June 17, 2020, but to no avail.
“I have met the V-C and explained several times and reminded him of the matter on July 25, August 1, August 6 and August 10, 2020,” she said, adding that after the chairperson of the internal complaints committee (ICC) did not take her calls, she contacted some other members who advised her to send her complaint via mail to every member of the panel. However, she said, on August 13, she got a mail from the panel’s chairperson, saying her complaint has been forwarded to the defendant himself.
On August 14, the ICC was reconstituted and a few members were replaced, that too with wrong/back date on notice as “August 14, 2019”. Registrar SN Tewari refuted the allegations. “She is doing this because her rejoining process has been stalled. She went on a work visa though she said she was going for research. We have asked her to submit the emoluments drawn, but she is yet to do it,” he said. VC BP Sharma said he will have to check the file. DCP (women’s safety) Vrinda Shukla said, “She said she was not satisfied with ICC functioning and the latter forwarded her complaint to the accused. The matter will be investigated by the ACP (women’s safety)...”