DEEPIKA PASHAM
Hyderabad
A senior professor of the University of Hyderabad was arrested by the Cyberabad police for alleged sexual harassment and outraging the modesty of a female student.The police said the professor was arrested based on a criminal complaint (FIR No: IPC 1391/2022) registered under Sections 354 and 354 (A) of the IPC at the Gachibowli Police Station.
The foreign student was a student in the Hindi Language Department. She knows to speak only her native language and was allegedly asked by the professor to come to his residence as he wished to share a book on Hindi.
The student went to the house of her teacher and was later dropped at the varsity hostel. Then the student was found weeping and her friends asked her to speak out. It came to light that she was intoxicated with alcohol and that the professor had tried to exploit the situation.
The university students union said that they had complained immediately to the Registrar when a group of female students approached on Friday at 9 pm. But the Registrar ignored the matter and asked the students to keep quiet to protect the university’s reputation.
“This is a serious issue and our officials did not bother to take action. We have been waiting since night and found that it has been ignored. Then we came out on the road to protest. This made them take action. Our demand is to conduct an investigation and punish the professor. The police also troubled the complainant by asking her to give a written complaint. When the victim has no idea of the local language and was in trauma how can she give a complaint,” said PhD scholar Abhishek.Meanwhile, the University of Hyderabad declared that Prof. Ravi Ranjan of the Department of Hindi has been suspended.
