Jadavpur University has ordered an internal inquiry into an alleged sexual harassment incident involving a first-year arts student and a non-teaching staff member on campus, with Vice-Chancellor Chiranjeeb Bhattacharya stating that the accused staff member will remain barred from entering the university until the committee submits its report.
The incident allegedly took place on Friday in the university’s Technology Building. According to the report, three first-year students from the arts department were sitting on the stairs on the seventh floor when a staff member asked them to come downstairs. Two students left, while one remained there. The staff member allegedly returned to the seventh floor and, after finding the student alone, pulled her hand and held her around the waist.
The student is alleged to have managed to leave the area and gone downstairs, where she reportedly told classmates that she had been harassed. A section of students subsequently protested against the staff member. The report said the student had not separately filed a complaint at the time of publication.
The staff member has denied the allegation. He said students had previously been prohibited from going to the seventh floor because incidents such as laptop theft had reportedly taken place in classrooms there. According to his account, he had gone to warn the students because they were sitting and talking in the area, and no such incident as alleged had occurred. He also claimed that the accusation was an attempt to malign him.
The university administration has not treated the allegation as a routine disciplinary dispute. The vice-chancellor said the matter would be referred to the university’s Internal Complaints Committee for examination. The committee’s inquiry is expected to establish the relevant facts and provide the basis for further administrative action.
The interim restriction on the staff member’s campus entry separates the immediate institutional response from the final determination of the allegation. It also places the case within the university’s formal mechanism for handling complaints of sexual harassment, rather than leaving the matter to be resolved solely through student protests or informal discussions.
The incident has again brought attention to the responsibility of educational institutions to maintain safe, accountable campuses and to respond promptly when allegations involve students and staff. In this case, the next official step is the Internal Complaints Committee’s investigation. The accused staff member’s access to the campus will remain restricted until the committee’s report is received, according to the vice-chancellor.
