Kalakshetra sexual harassment issue: Faculty member arrested by Chennai police

Assistant professor Hari Padman was arrested from a house in Madhavaram, said the police.
Assistant professor Hari Padman (Photo | Special Arrangement)
Assistant professor Hari Padman (Photo | Special Arrangement)

CHENNAI: The Chennai city police arrested the faculty in Kalakshetra Foundation for making sexual advances to a former woman student in the institution. This comes days after a case was registered. 

Assistant professor Hari Padman was booked under IPC sections 354A (sexual harassment) ( 509 (use of words, gestures or acts intended to insult the modesty of a woman) and section 4 of the Women Harassment Act. He was arrested from a house in Madhavaram, said the police.

The case was registered based on a complaint by a former student at an All Women Police station in the city. Police sources said that Hari was sending obscene messages and comments to her through social media.

The victim also mentioned that the faculty harassed her while she was studying and she had to discontinue because of him.

However, the accused kept harassing her for years even after she left the institution, said a senior police officer. 

The complaint was given to the police by Friday evening and the police, after seeking legal expertise, registered a case at night. 

Three other male faculty members accused of sexually harassing the students should not be allowed entry into the premises, the Tamil Nadu State Commission for Women chairperson A S Kumari told the Kalakshetra management.

On April 2, a team of Tamil Nadu police went to Kerala to record the statements of witnesses in the sexual harassment case against Padman, police added.

Meanwhile, Kalakshetra director Revathi Ramachandran appeared before the women's panel.

(With online desk inputs)

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