PIO dean resigns after sexual harassment allegation in US

A 45-year-old Indian-origin dean of a prestigious US law school has resigned from his post, days after a lawsuit was filed against him by his executive assistant alleging that he sexually harassed her over a period of several months. 

Sujit Choudhry, had initially taken an indefinite leave of absence after the lawsuit was filed earlier this week but the Berkeley Law School announced that he had resigned from his post and his resignation was accepted on Thursday. Choudhry had also "admitted" in a campus investigative report, dated July 2015, that he had hugged and kissed his executive assistant but there was no "sexual intent" to his conduct towards her. 

The school admitted that criticism against it for not removing Choudhry from his post immediately after the allegations had surfaced is legitimate. The victim filed the lawsuit this week in Alameda County Superior Court in California that sues him for sexual harassment, failure to prevent harassment, retaliation, infliction of emotional distress and assault. The lawsuit alleges that Choudhry hugged and kissed her almost daily and the harassment began in September 2014 until March 2015. The report, which did not name the assistant, said that she had written a six page email in March 2015 to Choudhry detailing her objections to "rude and demeaning conduct and sexual harassment" by him towards her.