TIRUNELVELI: Following a complaint lodged by a guest lecturer with the Tirunelveli Town All-Women Police, the cops have registered a case against a professor of Manonmaniam Sundaranar University (MSU) for allegedly subjecting her to sexual and mental harassment since 2019.
The police booked a case against chemistry professor S Kannan under Section 354 A of IPC on Sunday. A copy of the FIR is with TNIE. In her complaint, the woman guest lecturer accused professor Kannan of sexually harassing her on multiple occasions since 2019, when she was a PhD student.
She further alleged that a former MLA, father-in-law of Kannan, had threatened her and her husband through a former councillor and his (MLA) relative a day after representatives of the Tamil Nadu State Commission for Women conducted an inquiry into her petition.
The temporary lecturer also accused Kannan of instigating a section of students against her. She alleged that another professor, Nagarajan, had put pressure on her to award pass marks to his wife, who was studying in the university.
The guest lecturer told TNIE that she had submitted multiple petitions to the State and National Commissions for Women, the vice-chancellor (V-C), the higher education department, and the chief minister’s special cell in this regard. The State Commission for Women considered her complaint, a copy of which is with TNIE, and conducted an inquiry.
“Two people (former councillor and former MLA’s relative) abused me in front of my husband. They asked me to describe how Kannan sexually harassed me,” she stated in her complaint. V-C N Chandrasekar could not be reached for his comments.