KOCHI: The director of the of the Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, Kalady, was suspended pending inquiry for allegedly misbehaving with a girl student. The incident that led to the suspension occurred during the Onam celebrations held on the campus.
According to an order issued by the vice-chancellor, assistant professor A S Pratheesh was suspended with immediate effect. He has been banned from entering the campus and also from having any interaction with the complainant. The order also said that Priya S has been given the charge of campus director.
Students had complained about the behaviour of Pratheesh earlier too. According to Justin James, a first-year MA Malayalam student, the teacher used to make comments targeting girl students in the classroom.
“Following this, the students had sent complaints via e-mail to the department head. That was in 2021, towards the end of March,” he said.
Justin said the head then called a department council meeting and sought an explanation from the said teacher. “As per the HoD, the teacher accepted his misdemeanour and tendered an apology. We were told that the university will take further disciplinary action against the teacher. However, to date, they never notified us of any action being initiated,” said the student.
That incident happened when Pratheesh was teaching on the Kalady campus. According to Justin, the students realised later that the assistant professor had been transferred to the Thiruvananthapuram Regional Centre ‘on academic interest’. “The assistant professor has been known to misbehave with girl students wherever he worked,” the student said.