A prominent engineering college professor in central Mumbai was arrested for a complaint lodged by a female student for a sexual harassment.
A Matunga police official said they have arrested the professor under Indian Penal Code sections 354 and 354A for outraging a woman’s modesty.
Police said the accused had left the city for his native place in Karnataka when the offence was being registered.
On Saturday, he was produced before the Bhoiwada court and remanded to judicial custody. “We are now gathering evidence in the case”, said Bala Kakkad, senior inspector, Matunga police station.
The incident took place on May 18, the girl complaint in a letter to the institute. Where as the institutes’s officials handed over the letter to the police two weeks before after political body apparently put pressure on them for not taking any action against him.
Aditya Thackeray, Yuva Sena chief, took up the matter with the institute as well as senior police officials. Amol Matele from Nationalist student’s Congress asked the institute to take action against the professor.
Last Monday, the institute director had told TOI they gave the complaint letter to the police and said they would assist them with whatever was required. “The institute conducts special classes in the summer for weaker students. The professor has been asked to not take these classes for now. The internal complaints committee at the institute, which is also probing the matter, is yet to submit its report. We will take action based on the panel’s report,” said the director.
It is said that the girl in her complaint on May 18 blamed the professor of mathematics made her wait for two hours for the reason of signing her summer term form, and then called her inside in his cabinet after 5pm, where he molested her and browbeaten her that he will fail her if she did not listen to him. She returned with her parents next day to lodge a complaint at the institute.