Jaipur:
In a huge embarrassment for teachers across the country, a professor at the Rajasthan University has been arrested for allegedly demanding sexual favours from his student.
The victim has alleged that her research guide Dr R K Singhal of the Physics department was harassing her for months.
The professor asked the girl to have sexual relations with him if she wanted to complete her PhD. Besides molesting her in February, Singhal and his colleague S N Dolia allegedly even blackmailed the student by morphing her face onto some obscene pictures.
"While submitting her PhD thesis, the victim was asked for sexual favours by the teacher. Our preliminary investigation has found that the allegations are true and so we have arrested the Professor," said BL Soni, Commissioner of Police, Jaipur.
Students at the Rajasthan University are enraged. "The way a teacher has asked for sexual favours is shameful for our university. We won't tolerate this," said one of them.
Outraged students organised a 'bandh' on the campus, demanding the sacking of the accused teachers. Shockingly, despite the victim complaining about the teacher's misconduct, the university authorities took no action initially. It was only after the girl lodged a police complaint that the accused teacher was arrested. Both Singhal and his colleague Dolia were later suspended from the university.
Besides suspending the two teachers, the university has also asked two retired Judges of the High Court to probe this shocking issue.
The sordid case has shaken everyone at Rajasthan's oldest and most prestigious university. In a country where teachers have been revered as 'gurus' and the relation between a teacher and a student has been considered as a 'sacred' one for centuries, this incident represents a terrible breach of trust.