JNTU Kakinada students demand removal of professor accused of sexual harassment

A five-member committee has been formed to look into the allegations made by a student.
JNTU Kakinada students demand removal of professor accused of sexual harassment
JNTU Kakinada students demand removal of professor accused of sexual harassment
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Students of the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU) in Kakinada on Sunday staged a protest, demanding that tainted professor K Babulu, be sacked.

Babulu, who is the Director of Information, Computer Science and Technology department, was accused of sexual harassment.

The students protested for several hours as both the police and university registrar, Subba Rao, failed to convince the students.

However, they later withdrew the protest after an assurance from Vice-Chancellor Professor VVS Kumar, that the accused professor would be removed from the post-graduate programme and the ongoing internal exams would be postponed, The New Indian Express reported.

According to a PTI report, the students called off the protest after giving the administration a deadline till 11 am to take action against the professor.

The protesting students demanded that the accused professor be transferred to some other institute. However, the administration claimed that it was beyond their reach to take such action, but the authorities assured students that he would not conduct the viva.

The university on Saturday constituted a five member-committee to verify the allegations against Babulu, based on the complaint of a MTech student. The complainant levelled the allegation that the accused professor touched them inappropriately and made vulgar comments during a viva held on January 23, 24 and 25 in the laboratory. The accused professor was the external examiner.

As the incident came to fore, first-year students wrote a letter to the university administration asking the administration to prevent Babulu from giving any important assignment as he preyed on girls with his sexual advances.

This is not the first such case in the Telugu states.

Recently, a sexual assault by a lecturer against a student came to light in Hyderabad. The accused, a physics lecturer from a college in Hayathnagar, allegedly sexually exploited the girl by threatening her of poor grades, if she resisted his advances.

The accused also allegedly asked for her intimate pictures over WhatsApp, due to which the girl slipped into depression. The girl later narrated the ordeal to her parents, following which a police complaint was lodged against the lecturer.

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