Assistant Professor of Kalakshetra Foundation held in sexual harassment case

Chennai Police on Monday arrested an assistant professor of Kalakshetra Foundation on a complaint of sexual harassment filed by a former student.

Hari Padman, against whom several allegations of sexual harassment have been levelled by students, was booked under Sections 354A (sexual harassment), 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 4 (penalty for harassment of woman) of the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Women Act.

The arrest comes three days the students called off their protest against the management’s inaction on their complaints. The protests were withdrawn after the State Women’s Commission and Chief Minister M K Stalin have an assurance that the guilty will be brought to justice.

Stalin’s statement in the Assembly on Friday came as students wrote to him and Union Culture Minister G Kishan Reddy demanding dismissal of four faculty members, including Hari Padman, against several students have levelled allegations of sexual harassment.

They also demanded official acknowledgment of the student council and student union as a working body for the welfare of the students, an immediate stop to the verbal and sexual harassment and body shaming and colorism, change of counsellor, and assurance of privacy and basic human rights to the students staying at the hostel.