JNU ex-prez found not guilty in sexual harassment case

Former JNU students’ union president Akbar Chowdhary, who was accused in a sexual harassment case almost two years ago by a female student, was found not guilty of the charges by a vice-chancellor appointed appeals’ committee.

Former JNU students’ union president Akbar Chaudhary, who was accused in a sexual harassment case almost two years ago by a female student, was found not guilty of the charges by a vice-chancellor appointed appeals’ committee.

File photo Akbar Chaudhary who was found not guilty in a two year old sexual harassment case. (Sonu Mehta/HT Photo)

The case was filed in July 2014 with JNU’s Gender Sensitisation Committee against Sexual Harassment (GSCASH) against Chaudhary and joint secretary Sarfaraz Hamid. Both Chaudhary and Hamid resigned from their posts after this.

Following the GSCASH report in the case, Chaudhary had filed for an appeal.

JNU executive council recently accepted the report of the appeals’ committee and issued an office order. HT has a copy of the office order circulated in the university. The order said the case did not hold, as it had been found to be a case of breach of mutual trust rather than sexual harassment.

“The executive council … resolved to accept the report of the Appeals Committee that this is a case of breach of mutual trust rather than a sexual harassment,” the order issued in January said.

An EC member on condition of anonymity told HT, “The charges were not correct as per the appeals committee and even GSCASH did not find any substantive charges of sexual harassment. The report was cleared in the EC.”

Chaudhary refused to comment on the matter. GSCASH, in its report in 2015, had charged him with slandering the girl student. The university had then suspended his hostel facility for one semester.