LUCKNOW: Accused of inappropriate behaviour with girl students during a tour to Odisha in 2018, Professor Shail Kumar Chaube, a faculty member of zoology department of the Banaras Hindu University, is likely to be awarded compulsory retirement.
The executive council (EC) of the BHU has purportedly taken the decision to this effect in its meeting held at New Delhi on Friday. However, the sources in BHU V-C office chose to be non-committal over the issue just saying that the decision had already been taken. They refused to elaborate on details.
A group of around 36 girl students had accused the professor of misbehaviour and obscene comments during the study tour in October. Notably, the professor was suspended soon after the girls had lodged a complaint against him in 2018. But his suspension was revoked this June much to the chagrin of complainants despite the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) report confirming misbehaviour on the part of the accused professor.
Opposing the university administration’s decision, the complainants began a sit-in to protest Prof Chaube’s reinstatement on September 14. However, the BHU EC had explained to the students that the professor would be punished by entering his inappropriate behaviour in his service records, thereby, barring him from taking up any administrative role in any university in future.
After fierce protest by the girls, the BHU administration sent Prof Chaube on a long leave the very next day and decided to refer the complaint against him back to the EC. The protesting students called off their stir, but submitted an eight-point memorandum to the university administration, demanding the professor’s expulsion from the varsity. Meanwhile, Prof Chaube rubbished the accusation against him as false and fabricated.