Head of the Geology department at Bharathidasan University, Khajamalai campus, won’t be taking classes after he was accused of driving a student to attempt suicide. The university decided several students and parents protested demanding his termination.
On November 15, a second-year Geology student attempted suicide accusing that the professor had been harassing her. She said that the HOD took her phone and forced her to unlock the device and show him the call logs and other contents. She also said that the professor later coerced her to write an apology for the content on her device.
The girl had allegedly reported to the university management but there was no action taken.
University Registrar G Gopinath and police tried to calm the protestors gathered at the university’s gate but the protestors demanded an FIR to be filed against the professor. The university instead said that the professor will no longer at the university. The protest was then called off.
A student said, “Students were verbally abused and forced to write an apology letter, mentioning other student’s names. He [HOD] would ask us to get our parent’s signatures on it.”
The mother of a woman student in the Geology department said, “I refused to sign a letter that my daughter brought because it said that she was talking to boys and taking photographs with them. What was wrong about that? Why should she write an apology and get it signed by me? But when I refused, my daughter was warned that she would fail in the exams if I didn’t comply. So I obliged.”
