LUCKNOW: Tempers are running high among senior professors at IIT-Kanpur after the police registered an FIR against four professors under various sections of IPC and the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act following a complaint from a Dalit assistant professor in the aerospace engineering department.
In his complaint, made at Kalyanpur police station in Kanpur, Subramanyam Saderla accused the four professors—Ishan Sharma, Sanjay Mittal, Rajeev Shekhar and Chandrashekhar Upadhyaya—of harassment. He claimed that the senior colleagues made casteist remarks against him and spread misinformation through e-mail about his PhD degree.
Saderla had submitted the complaint around two weeks ago at the police station. After finding the charges to be true, the police lodged the FIR on Sunday night under Section 500 of IPC (Punishment for defamation), Section 66 D of the IT Act (Punishment for cheating by personation by using computer resource), and the SC/ST Act, said Superintendent of Police (west) Sanjeev Suman.
“Some of the senior faculty members are chalking out a strategy to handle the situation,” said a highly placed source in IIT-K. He added that the four professors were willing to reach a compromise, but Saderla wanted to send them to jail.
“There could be a sort of revolt among the professors if four of their colleagues are sent to jail,” said the source.
Prof Rajeev Shekhar is now the director of Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, Prof Mittal and Prof Upadhyaya are members of the faculty in the aerospace engineering department, and Ishan Sharma teaches mechanical engineering.
In his complaint, Saderla said that he had applied for a job in July 2017 and was given his appointment letter on December 28, 2017, after clearance from external experts. He joined IIT-K as an assistant professor on January 1, 2018.
Saderla, an alumnus of IIT-Kanpur, claimed that soon after his induction, during a conference on January 4, 2018, Prof Sanjay Mittal ridiculed him over his caste. He, along with three others, created the impression that Saderla had been appointed assistant professor in the prestigious institution due to the benefits of the SC/ST quota and not his competence.
Saderla raised the issue with the then officiating director of IIT-K, Prof Manindra Agarwal, who set up a four-member probe panel to ascertain the veracity of the accusation against the senior professors.
Sources said that the probe team found the senior professors guilty of the charge and the matter was referred to the institution’s board of governors. The board found them guilty of mental torture and intimidation.
Meanwhile, Saderla approached the SC/ST commission with his complaint. The commission heard the case on April 10, 2018 and passed orders against the four professors. However, the accused professors moved the High Court and a obtained a stay on the orders.