Visva-Bharati guest lecturer accused of sexual harassment, FIR lodged

Three students of West Bengal's Visva-Bharati university have accused the professor of sexual harassment. He has denied their allegations.

Accusing a guest lecturer of sexual harassment, three female students of West Bengal’s Visva-Bharati University have lodged an FIR against him.

An investigation into the charges of sexual harassment is underway, a police officer said. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The complainants, students of the Shantiniketan-based university’s Persian, Urdu and Islamic Studies department, said in their complaint that the accused sent ‘lewd’ messages to them on WhatsApp, and, at times, touched them ‘inappropriately.’

The girls also alleged that the professor had even promised to help them in the semester exams if they accepted his ‘proposals.’

The guest teacher, meanwhile, denied the girls’ allegations, and claimed that he was being ‘framed.’

“I have been teaching here for a long time. I have never faced such allegations in the past,” he told news agency PTI.

The FIR was lodged at the Santiniketan police station on March 28. The complaint was also recorded in the court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM), Belpur.

An investigation into the charges of sexual harassment is underway, a police official said.

Sudipta Bhattacharya, spokesperson, Visva-Bharati University Faculty Association, called for a ‘proper inquiry at the earliest’ into the allegations.