Professor held in ‘molestation’ case

kolkata: Kolkata Police has arrested a professor of Acharya Brojendra Nath Seal College in Cooch Behar in connection with a molestation case.

The professor, Rana Roy, had also sent a threat letter to the Registrar and Joint Registrar of Jadavpur University. He was arrested from a hotel in Bhubaneswar, Odisha on Sunday night and brought to the city on Monday morning based on a complaint lodged by a woman at the Tala Police Station. He has been given police custody till September 6. It is alleged that Roy had been stalking the woman since 2019 and it continued till August 17, this year. He allegedly outraged her modesty by making indecent gestures and hurling abuses. He even allegedly hugged the woman inside the LIG Housing in Belgachia.

The victim also alleged that Roy posed as a civil service officer of the state government and had a board attached to his car that read “WBES Gr-A, Govt of West Bengal, By Order”. Apart from molesting the complainant, the accused allegedly cheated several vendors by not paying against purchases he made worth approximately Rs 62,000.

Roy is learnt to have been allegedly involved in another molestation case in Tala Police Station registered on November 2, 2019. In this case, police had filed a chargesheet against the professor, showing him as ‘absconding’.

On February 10, 2023, he was arrested based on an arrest warrant issued by the ACJM, Sealdah Court in connection with this case. But he was granted bail by the court. At present the trial of the case is yet to start.