BENGALURU: There seems to be no end to the sexual harassment incidents on the premises of Maharani Arts and Commerce College for Women. Ten more students have approached the collegiate commissioner and filed complaint against six faculty members, accusing them of sexual harassment.
Confirming this, Dr Ajay Nagabhushan, Commissioner of State Department of Collegiate Education, said, “Yes, we have received harassment complaints from 10 students against six male faculty members. An external committee headed by a senior IAS officer will conduct an inquiry and based on the report,action will be initiated.”
Officials said that inquiry into the 10 fresh cases will be conducted separately. Each case will be treated as an individual case. They refused to divulge further details of the complaints.
As per the information available, there are over 600 students at the college. Some of them stay in the hostel located in the same campus at Palace Road.
The department has, meanwhile, suspended Kannada faculty Ramalingappa T Beguru on charges of alleged sexual harassment.
Another faculty member Kumar has also been suspended for spreading the news at the campus.
The Expert Committee on Preventing Sexual Violence against Women and Children headed by VS Ugrappa too visited the college. After meeting with students and faculty members, Ugrappa said, “No police complaint has been filed yet in this regard. I have discussed the same with the City Police Commissioner and directed them to take up the issue immediately and start investigation.”
“Students have accused 15 faculty members of misbehaving with them and trying to spoil the environment of the college. The internal committee has been asked to look into all the allegations and submit the report soon,” Ugrappa added.
A student had recently accused a Kannada lecturer of allegedly sexually harassing her during the college fest.She mentioned in the complaint that the lecturer allegedly kissed her when she was wearing a new dress.
However, the inquiry by internal committee established that he had pulled her hand. As the case reached the collegiate education department, the authorities transferred the faculty member to a college at Jewargi. But following protests from different quarters, including students, the suspension order was released on Monday.