St Stephen's College molestation row: Accused professor resigns from his post

St Stephen's professor Satish Kumar, who is facing charges of molesting a PhD student working under his supervision, has resigned from the post of college Bursar following which the Governing Body on Wednesday made a new appointment for the administrative position.

Kumar, an Assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry, was yesterday denied anticipatory bail by a Delhi Court in connection with the case.

"Kumar had sent a text message expressing his inability to discharge the duties of Bursar. The college's Governing Body has resolved this morning that Kumar be relieved of all duties and obligations of the position and a new appointment has been made," St Stephen's Principal Valson Thampu said.

"The college's treasurer Sudhir Joseph is now the new Bursar while Kumar will continue to work as assistant professor," he added.

Thampu, who himself is facing allegations of trying to protect the accused said, "I in the capacity of principal have to wait for the nod of the Governing Body to implement such decisions".

The student had approached police last week alleging that Kumar had molested the complainant on October 15, 2013. She has also accused him of stalking her, passing lewd remarks and making inappropriate physical contact for months before the incident and even threatening to "pour sulfuric acid on her if she didn't wear a yellow sari to college."

The complainant has also accused Thampu of shielding Kumar when the matter was reported to him. She has alleged that the Principal discouraged her from filing a sexual harassment case, leaving her with two options — "go to Delhi University's grievance redressal cell and jeopardise my degree or term the issue an academic problem".

Thampu is maintaining that the girl had reported the matter to him and he had "duly" forwarded it to the college's Internal Complaints Committee (ICC), a statutory body to deal with complaints of this nature.

The Principal has also said that he had offered to change the student's guide if she was finding it difficult to work under him but she had refused to accept the suggestion.