IIM-B director, 7 others booked for caste bias

Bengaluru police filed an FIR against IIM Bangalore officials over caste discrimination claims by Dalit professor Gopal Das, despite the institution's denial.

The Bengaluru police on Friday registered a first information report (FIR) against Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore director Rishikesha T Krishanan, dean (faculty) Dinesh Kumar and six other faculty members over allegations of caste discrimination against a Dalit associate professor at the same institution.

The FIR was registered at the Mico Layout Police Station on the directions of the Karnataka Social Welfare Department (KSWD), issued on December 9 after an inquiry by the Directorate of Civil Rights Enforcement (DCRE) on November 26 indicted the institution of caste-based harassment and denial of equal opportunities to Das.

An internal inquiry by IIM-Bangalore has denied the allegations and called them unfounded.

In the FIR, a copy of which is with HT, the eight IIM officials were charged under sections 3(1)(r) (insult or intimidation of an SC/ST person) and 3(1)(s) (abusing SC/ST person by caste name) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 2014, and section 351 (2) (criminal intimidation) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

HT reached out to the institute about the FIR but didn’t get a response till the time of print.

In January, associate professor Gopal Das lodged a complaint with President Droupadi Murmu during her visit to the institute, alleging discrimination, denial of fair promotions, and harassment due to his Scheduled Caste identity. He alleged he was excluded from institutional activities, forced to withdraw elective courses and PhD programmes, denied access to resources, and humiliated by being referred to as belonging to a “lower caste.”

DCRE submitted its investigation report on November 26 confirming allegations of caste-based discrimination at IIM-Bangalore. In its report, which HT has seen, the agency found that the director of IIM-Bangalore deliberately publicised Das’s caste through “mass email” and alleged “denial of equal opportunity to the petitioner in the workplace environment”. It also found “non-conformity to the statutory need to establish the institutional mechanism to redress the grievances of the scheduled caste and the scheduled tribes by the IIM, Bangalore”.

The report was signed by Rakesh Kumar Krishna Murthy, the commissioner of the Social Welfare Department, Bengaluru.

In a statement issued on Thursday, IIM-Bangalore had denied the allegations and said that its Diversity and Inclusion Grievance Redressal Committee had investigated the charges.

“Das’s allegations of discrimination against the Institute and its faculty came up only when his application for promotion was put on hold because of complaints of harassment lodged by some doctoral students against him. An enquiry conducted by IIMB as per the rules, with the committee including a reputed academic from the SC category from an eminent institution, found that the students’ complaints were justified. The DIGRC found Dr. Das’s complaints of harassment and discrimination to be unfounded,” the institute’s statement had said.

Das did not comment despite repeated attempts by HT.