NUJS Kolkata’s staff sexual harassment victim on Friday accused the law school’s internal complaints committee (ICC) of bias after the ICC expressed its displeasure at her lodging a criminal complaint against the accused, as well as at media coverage of the issue, reported the Calcutta Telegraph.
At a 20 August hearing of the victim’s internal complaint – the first in the 70 days since she had lodged her complaint internally at the law school – the ICC allegedly asked her repeatedly why she had lodged a police complaint despite filing a complaint with the university.
The ICC allegedly told the woman that the parallel police investigation would further delay the institution’s probe since the accused was unable to come out of hiding and depose before the in-house committee because of the First Information Report (FIR) against him.
According to the police, the accused has been absconding since a Barasat court rejected his plea for anticipatory bail.
The victim also alleged that the ICC questioned her on why reports highlighting her plight had appeared in the media and whether she didn’t trust the ICC to do its job.
Sources at the law school told the newspaper that they saw the ICC’s stance as a “pressure tactic” to force the victim to withdraw her FIR and settle the matter “across the table”.
The victim had first filed her complaint on 12 June, allegedly over a year after informally bringing the issue to NUJS vice chancellor Ishwara Bhatt’s notice. After no internal hearing in her complaint at the law school for 43 days, she filed a criminal complaint at the Bidhannagar police station in Kolkata against the accused. The law school suspended the accused on 10 August, for non-cooperation in the ICC”s inquiry against him.
