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No transfer recommended in ICC report
Odisha college's ICC found no evidence of harassment against professor Samir Sahoo despite a student's death after self-immolation, raising concerns about the probe.
The Internal Complaints Committee of the Odisha college where a 20-year old woman student died last week after an attempt at self-immolation did not recommend the transfer of Samir Sahoo, the professor the student accused of sexually harassing her, documents reviewed by Hindustan Times show.
The ICC set up after the woman lodged a complaint on July 1 started its probe on July 3 and submitted its report on the evening of July 9 . The woman attempted self-immolation on July 12, and died on July 14.
Two members of the committee , Gopamudra Mohapatra of NGO Balasore Narisangha and Minati Sethi, professor of English at the college said on Monday that though they did not find any evidence of sexual harassment during the probe, they recommended the transfer of head of the department of teachers’ education Samir Kumar Sahoo as there were evidence that he mistreated students . However, the principal of the college, Dilip Ghose did not act on the recommendation of the committee of transferring Sahoo, t they claimed.
A subsequent perusal of the ICC’s report showed that this was not the case. Member of Parliament from Balasore Pratap Sarangi, said he has seen the report too and that it does not recommend the transfer/shifting of accused professor Samir Sahoo.
Instead, HT’s review of the report showed that the committee heaped praises on professor Sahoo for trying to discipline students in the Integrated B.Ed stream while dismissing allegations of sexual harassment.
The report said the girl was academically weak and that’s why her father requested Sahoo as well as Sethi to help her. “The complainant remains absent in her classes most of the days and Prof. Sahoo has informed her father several times. ...During the 4th semester, the father of the complainant telephonically informed the head of the department about the reason of her low attendance due to deaths in the family and surgery of her mother. But without any documentary proof of the same it was not possible to grant any relaxation in attendance to the complainant.”
It added that Sahoo repeatedly warned students about a backlog of papers and that while “almost all the students amended their ways after the warning, the complainant did not mend her ways.”
Following the woman’s death and the furore, with two separate investigations by the state police and the UGC, Sethi claimed that the panel gave a one- page note to the principal in a sealed envelope asking for Sahoo;s shifting . However, she did not say when the second report was given to the principal. “We also verbally told principal Dilip Ghose to take action against Sahoo which he did not do. The principal had immense power and he could have shifted Sahoo, she added.
But Sarangi said that the “actual probe in the case was done only for three days though the panel wrote they met for five days”. “I also asked the principal why the 60 students who deposed before the panel were called in batches of five and not individually as students were more likely to hide the truth in groups. The report was nothing more than Samir Chalisa(eulogy of Samir Sahoo) and he was portrayed as a Godly figure who take utmost care of the students. There was hardly any real probe.”
Other inconsistencies in the report were highlighted by the additional DG of state CID, Binaytosh Mishra who said the investigation would take longer than expected as many people who deposed before the Internal Complaints Committee of the college have “contradicted” their statements in front of the CID. Mishra visited the college along with members of the Crime Against Women (CAW) wing of CID, which took suo motu cognisance of the case on July 13.
“ We are baffled by the contradictions in the statements of those who deposed before the ICC, the statements of ICC members before the media as well as eyewitness accounts,” he added.
Activist and certified POSH trainer, Namrata Chaddha said the ICC report was nothing less than a mockery of probe considering that the main accused was not relieved of his duties during the probe process. “The ICC committed many mistakes including taking mass statements of 60 students, the father of the victim as well the owner of the private mess where the woman stayed who are not relevant to the probe process. In all likelihood none of the ICC members had any knowledge of POSH guidelines and that is reflected in the report. A hostile environment was created for the victim throughout and a shoddy probe was conducted without following the due process which may have pushed the victim to utter despair.”
