Senior IIT-Guwahati official held on rape charge

AK Ghoshal, professor of chemical engineering and dean of academic affairs, also accused of taking advantage of his official position.

The dean of academic affairs at Indian Institute of Technology-Guwahati was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly raping a junior colleague, police said.

Even-after-Friday-s-incident-of-rape-of-a-25-year-old-woman-by-a-cab-driver-people-got-busy-looking-for-ways-to-blame-the-victim-Kalpak-Pathak-HT-File-Photo

AK Ghoshal, professor of chemical engineering and dean of academic affairs, was caught on Monday night — on the basis of a complaint lodged on December 12 by a senior assistant of the peer review section of IIT-Guwahati’s academic affairs.

Ghoshal was arrested under section 376(2)(b) of IPC and produced before a local court on Tuesday. He was sent to 14-day judicial custody.

A local police officer said Ghoshal had tried to flee. He drove away from the IIT, when the police went there to nab him, but got caught in a traffic jam and abandoned his car in his attempt to run away.

“The woman appeared traumatised. She stayed away from work since the incident which, according to her complaint, happened 10 days ago,” said senior superintendent of police AP Tiwarim adding that Ghoshal had confessed to the crime before the magistrate.

An IIT-Guwahati spokesperson said the victim had not approached the institute’s internal complaints committee. “We have removed Ghoshal as dean. He faces suspension too,” he said. Ghoshal, who joined IIT-Guwahati in 2003, lived in the IIT campus with his son.