BENGALURU: The alleged sexual harassment case filed by a student of Maharani Arts and Commerce College for Women against a faculty member has now been recommended to be probed by the Department of Collegiate Education.
A committee headed by the Chief Executive Officer of Bengaluru Urban Zilla Panchayath to probe the case has submitted its report to the department, where it recommended for the departmental inquiry.
Sources from the department said, “During an inquiry by the committee, the student stressed that she did not want to lodge a police complaint and added that she prefers departmental inquiry. As per her request, the committee recommended departmental probe.”
Meanwhile, the professor has agreed before the committee that ‘he had pulled the girl’s hand and there were no other intentions’. “Even the girl, in her complaint, has said that he pulled her hand in the campus,” mentioned a source.
During March 2017, a final year undergraduate student of the college had filed a complaint before the principal alleging that a senior professor from the Kannada Department had sexually harassed her. She had also approached the Department of Collegiate Education.
An internal inquiry was conducted after which the commissioner suspended the professor. Another faculty member was also suspended for spreading the news in the campus.
A senior official from the department said, “We have received the report. We are yet to decide about the departmental inquiry. If the same is proved in the departmental inquiry, then the punishment may go up to dismissal of both the faculty members.”