MADURAI: Accusing an associate professor of continuous sexual harassment, as many as 13 women studying UG Economics at the government-aided college in Nagamalai Pudukottai have lodged a complaint with their principal. In the complaint copy accessed by TNIE, the students accused Associate Prof. C Rajkumar of making sexual gestures, coming inappropriately close to students, watching porn videos during class hours and also showing those videos to students. "The Internal Complaint Committee (ICC) of the college will conduct an inquiry into the matter on Monday," Principal M Rajendran told TNIE.
One of the complainants, on the request of anonymity, said, "The associate professor has been harassing the students for years. Our seniors too faced the same issue. His behaviour towards women in the class is completely unbecoming of a teacher. He has even sent offensive visuals to some students. Once, one student called him out and reprimanded him for the behaviour."
Another student TNIE spoke to said Associate Prof. Rajkumar used sexual innuendos while speaking to students. "He sings while girl students visit the department room. We are disgusted by all this. He is taking Industrial Economics subject for second-year students and Entrepreneurship Development for us third-year students. Our seniors had made an oral complaint against him, but the management blamed the students for everything. Even recently, the second-year students wanted to lodge a complaint but decided against it after the management threatened them. Previously, the college had to sack teaching faculty Ashokan after students accused him of sexual harassment and staged protests. Very recently, they had to dismiss another faculty named Pandiyaraja after it was found that he shared porn images with students through social media," she added.
Refuting all the allegations, Associate Prof. Rajkumar said he was not aware of the complaint.
Meanwhile, the All India Students Association (AISA) urged District Collector Dr. S Aneesh Sekhar and Regional Joint Director of Collegiate Education (RJDCE) R Pon Muthuramalingam to intervene in the issue. In a letter to the officials, AISA Madurai District Committee in-charge R Devaraj said, "A fair inquiry must be held into the students' complaints. Further, the government-aided college management has also not yet returned the excess fee they earlier collected from the students even after the RJDCE instructed them to do so."