Case against DU registrar, Daulat Ram principal on Dalit teacher’s complaint

Sagar Singh Kalsi, deputy commissioner of police (north), said police have filed a case under sections of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities act) on the orders of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes.

The Delhi Police on Monday filed a case against Daulat Ram College principal Savita Roy and the Delhi University registrar Vikas Gupta on a former teacher’s complaint alleging atrocities against her in 2020, before her contract with the college was terminated and not renewed.

Case against DU registrar, Daulat Ram principal on Dalit teacher’s complaint (FOR REPRESENTATION PURPOSE)

Sagar Singh Kalsi, deputy commissioner of police (north), said police have filed a case under sections of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities act) on the orders of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes.

Police said the woman, an ad hoc assistant professor, was removed from service in August 2020, after which she approached the court and the police with a complaint. “A complaint was filed at the Maurice Nagar police station in which she alleged atrocities against her but as per the police, there was no offence made out in her complaint. She had even approached the court but did not get any refuge. Then she approached the SC commission and on the orders of the commission, as well as her fresh statement, in which new facts were detailed amounting to the commission of an offence, a case was registered on May 23 and investigation is on,” DCP Kalsi said.

The former ad hoc assistant professor has in the past alleged that the college had terminated her services because of her social activism and also the issues that she chose to protest.

Meanwhile, Daulat Ram college in a statement issued on Tuesday said the woman’s contract was not renewed because several students had complained against her.

But this allegation was refuted by the former teacher in her press statements in 2020 and 2021. She has maintained that the college authorities had issues with her social media posts, her opinions and stands on certain issues, especially those against the government.

“They (university) have also submitted forged documents to the commission. This is a case of forgery too. They manipulated the records related to my students because they did not want me working with them. They even made casteist comments at me during a college function. I had to approach the commission because the university did not act,” she told HT.

In September 2020, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes issued a notice to the university after a teachers’ body filed a complaint regarding the alleged caste slurs.

Responding to the FIR filed on the woman’s complaint, college principal, Savita Roy, said, “I am yet to be informed about any development in this matter.”

Roy had earlier told HT that the assistant professor was hired in August 2019 on an ad hoc basis but severaal students complained about her after a few months. Roy said that students had stopped attending her online classes during the pandemic because of which the college administration decided not to let her continue at the college.

DU registrar Vikas Gupta said he was not aware of any such FIR against him, and clarified that he was not the registrar at the time when the complaint was filed. “I have no information about this. We have only been informed about some hearing before the SC/ST commission slated for May 30. I was not in charge when the issue was first raised; I joined only in October 2020,” said Gupta.