: A junior research fellow of the Botany department of the University of North Bengal (NBU) raised allegations of physical assault against Jnan Bikash Bhandari, the Head of the Department (HOD).
The student lodged a written complaint to the University, University Grants Commission and Education minister against the teacher, where she mentioned that the teacher physically assaulted her several times. Swapan Kumar Rakshit, the interim registrar of the University said: “We have received a complaint and immediately asked the Internal Complaints Committee of the university to take necessary actions. We will take decisions as per UGC guidelines.”
Meanwhile, students staged a protest by boycotting classes on Wednesday. They held a pen down protest and a protest march demanding the accused be strictly punished. The complainant alleged that the teacher physically harassed she started research work under his supervision in March 2022. In the complaint letter, the student mentioned that the accused gave her proposals to go to hotels in Darjeeling and Siliguri and spend the night with him. He allegedly threatened her of destroying her carrier if she told anyone. The teacher was posted in Siliguri College earlier where he allegedly did the same, the complainant said. The complainant submitted many audio recordings, WhatsApp messages as proof to the university. The university removed him from the post of HOD and appointed Subhash Chandra Roy, the dean of Science of NBU as HOD of Botany. Meanwhile, the accused teacher remained absent on Wednesday.