A 31-year-old student from the Archaeology department has alleged that she was sexually harassed by the head of the department in front of a group of students who had confronted him for intentionally failing them during one of their internal exams.

The students have claimed that the professor had given them low internal marks/failed them in the internal assessment as they had earlier protested against a hike in the hostel fee. During their meeting with the professor, he allegedly pushed the female student on the chest thrice despite the fact that she had warned him not to touch her. The HoD had also allegedly mentioned that she was powerless against him. Speaking to The Indian Express, a student reportedly said, On March 16, we went to the HOD to get our results. He abused us and asked us to leave. When the victim (the female student) asked for a response, he pushed her on her chest. This happened thrice and when one of my colleagues asked the professor as to why he is assaulting her, he was beaten up as well. We wanted him to apologise for his actions and waited outside his room. He went to meet the Registrar but he didn’t come out for a long time. After a while, he came, took his bag from his room, and was about to leave. We stopped him but again, he pushed us and asked us to do whatever we can. The girl then approached the university’s sexual harassment cell and lodged a complaint.

The girl had reportedly approached the sexual harassment cell in the campus the next day, but found that they were biased. Speaking to TNM, the girl said, They questioned my character and asked why I was protesting and sleeping on campus with the boys in my class. They kept saying that the HoD would have touched me by mistake and tried to dismiss my claims. They didn't conduct enquiries with the witnesses properly either, claiming lack of time. Another male student who was present at the scene claimed that the police refused to take a complaint and asked them to deal with the matter internally.