Bhubaneswar: A PhD student, who had earlier made sexual harassment charges against a senior professor of IIT Bhubaneswar, has lodged a formal complaint against the professor and some other authorities of the institute at a Mahila police station here on Friday.
The woman, hailing from West Bengal, has lodged an FIR against Prof. P.D. Reddy for allegedly sexually harassing her. The complaint also named a few officials of the institute for aiding him. Prof. Reddy is an alumnus of the University of Hyderabad.
IIT Bhubaneswar officials had termed the allegations levelled by the student as ‘baseless.’ The IIT authorities claimed that the girl was granted admission to IIT Bhubaneswar in July 2011 and brought up the allegation of sexual harassment on October 6, 2016.
“The matter was then referred to the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC). There is nothing pending with the institute and all statutory requirements have been completed holistically. However, she was not satisfied with the report of IIC and has now raised her voice once again for justice,” the authorities stated.
Challenging the report of the ICC, the woman lodged the complaint at the Mahila police station. Earlier in July, she had sent a notice to the Director of IIT through her lawyer. She had also written to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking their intervention.
After being informed about the issue, deputy secretary of skill development and technical education department P.K. Sarangi had sought an immediate report from the IIT director in connection with the case.
The woman had alleged that she has been a victim of sexual harassment soon after her marriage in November 2012. She stated that her husband too was mentally harassed by the professor as he had protested against the harassment.
