Hathras college principal held for ignoring complaints against prof accused of sexual exploitation
Superintendent of police (SP) Chiranjeev Nath Sinha said that the action was taken jointly by the Hathras Gate police and Special Operation Group (SOG) in connection with the case already registered against Prof Rajneesh Kumar, who was arrested in March.
Following the arrest of a senior professor accused of sexually harassing and blackmailing about a dozen female students at PC Bagla Degree College in Hathras in March, principal Mahaveer Singh Chonkar have also been held by the local police for failing to address the complaints by victims, authorities said on Wednesday. Not only the complaints against the accused professor were sidelined, he was even made the chief proctor of college, they said.
Hathras superintendent of police (SP) Chiranjeev Nath Sinha said that the action was taken jointly by the Hathras Gate police and Special Operation Group (SOG) in connection with the case already registered against Prof Rajneesh Kumar, who was arrested in March.
“It emerged during investigation that the principal was helping the professor in question by sitting on the complaints from victims and even criminally intimidating them about possible damage to their future. The accused professor, who is the head of geography department, continues to be in jail after being arrested from Prayagraj on March 19, 2025,” Sinha said.
“The victim students remained helpless as college principal Mahaveer Singh Chonkar never acted on the sensitive issue, thus emboldening the accused professor even though he was aware of the video evidence of sexual abuse against the accused,” Sinha said.
“When this case of sexual abuse was brought to his notice in the year 2023, the principal did not care for guidelines issued by the University Grants Commission (UGC) and made a lecturer junior to Prof Rajneesh the chairman of the enquiry committee, which gave him a clean chit,” Sinha said.
“Despite complaints of such serious nature against him, Prof Rajneesh was made the chief proctor and chairman of the discipline committee, the positions he could use to continue to intimidate and exploit the complainants,” the Hathras SP said.
“On the basis of these revelations during investigation, the principal of PC Bagla Degree College was arrested on Tuesday from Hathras under sections 64(2)/68/75 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Section 67 of IT Act,” he added.
It may be noted that Prof Rajneesh Kumar was accused of sexually exploiting around a dozen female students for around two decades with impunity. Kumar is also accused of recording and leaking 59 obscene videos online, according to the police.
The police said Prof Rajneesh Kumar (59) allegedly installed a special software on his phone and laptop, which helped him record videos in the background. According to the police, he would gift expensive items to female students to gain their trust and then sexually exploit them in his office while also secretly recording intimate moments.
The victims remained unaware of the recordings until the same were used later to blackmail them. Even after the students graduated, he allegedly continued to threaten and exploit them, the police said.
As per the Hathras SP, the accused professor, a resident of Javra village in Mathura district’s Mant tehsil, joined the college as a lecturer in 2001 and became the head of the geography department in 2016. In July 2024, he was appointed as the chief proctor of college. The FIR against him was registered in March after the U.P. State Women Commission received a complaint from an anonymous victim, addressed to the prime minister, Uttar Pradesh chief minister, and other authorities. The complaint contained 12 explicit photos, wherein the accused professor was seen behaving indecently with female students.
