Another case of sexual harassment in Assam University; interim HOD Najmul Islam arrested

More shame for Assam University. Another case of sexual harassment emerged posing serious questions to law and order and women security in the Central University. An MA student from the Arabic department lodged an FIR against her own interim HOD Najmul Islam Barbhuiya, accusing him of molesting her at his cabin. The student also alleged that she was later threatened in many ways by the professor. According to her FIR, she was sexually harassed by the professor in the month of May. She kept quiet initially succumbing to the professor’s repeated threatening.

“After receiving the FIR, we started our investigation. We got enough evidence to arrest the professor on charges of molestation. IPC 354 was imposed on him, and today the professor was produced in the court. The bench ordered judicial custody on him,” said Superintendent of Police, Cachar, Rakesh Roushan.

This comes just a month after the head of the department of agricultural engineering, Assam University, Sudipto Sarkar was suspended in connection with a case of sexual harassment.

A fourth-semester M.Tech student of the department had filed a complaint with the university authority on July 16 accusing Sarkar of sexually harassing her. The university students’ union gheraoed the registrar Sanjib Bhattacharjee and vice-chancellor (in-charge) D.K. Pandya on July 26 after which Sarkar was relieved of his post (Read here). Not only Sarkar, Nirakar Mallik of the department of sociology, was also suspended for similar charges against him. A research scholar had in 2016 filed a complaint accusing Mallik of sexually harassing her. The matter was investigated but a decision was yet to be taken.

All these incidents are certainly maligning the stature of Assam University, and more importantly, these cases turn out to be a nightmare for the parents having ambitious daughters at home. When the Prime Minister of the country is aggressively promoting Beti Bachao Beti Padhao campaign, such cases of sexual harassment in a central government University exposes serious lapses.