‘Hope your daughters go through same’: Missing JNU student allege harassment by professor

NEW DELHI: A 26-year-old student of Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University or JNU, who had gone missing on March 11, “returned” on Monday has slammed her professor at the University and alleged that he is a characterless person and has no manners.

The matter came to light after her family lodged a complaint on March 12 at the Vasant Kunj police station after her family’s attempts to trace her did not yield result and her hostel room was found locked.

She is a student at the School of Life Sciences at the JNU and is pursuing an Integrated M Phil and PhD course.

In a mail written to her guide Professor AK Johri, the woman slammed by calling him a “characterless person” and has no manners on how to talk to girls, reported DNA.

“Respected Sir, I know you have a misconception that you are the best guide in JNU or in the whole country and every student wants to do Ph.D under you. I also came thinking so, but then you proved me that the first impression is not always the last impression. Even uneducated people are more Manner full and Decent then you Mr AK Johri,” she said in a mail.

“I am leaving your so-called prestigious lab just because you are a characterless person and you do not have manners, how to talk to girls and you have a particular pattern by which you make every girl feel that she is worthless and you are a kind of Baba of life Sciences, so hard luck,” she added.

Further added, “There are so many incidents that provoked me to take such a step, but I was waiting for the right time to write this letter and after one year I got this opportunity. And I pray to god that your daughters should also face the same situation in every field of life than at least you realise a pain of a girl.”

The woman had spoken to her family on March 10 but from March 11, her phone was switched off.

Denying the allegations, the professor said, “Some girls, who have levelled the allegations against me, had received a mail from me on February 27 regarding their irregular attendance in the lab. So, they are targeting me.”

He also shared the group mail with PTI.

The mail, which was marked to some of the students who have levelled the allegations against the professor, read, “Dear all, you are not coming to the lab on time. In many cases, even if you come, you are not in the lab the whole day.”

Referring to the 26-year-old student, the mail said, “Most of the time, you are absent. Please find another lab, it is very difficult to finish PhD on time. You have already used 30 days of leave.”

“It is because of these mails that I have been targeted by the students,” the professor said, adding that no complaint was filed against him either with the discarded GSCASH or the Internal Complaints Committee.

The students said they were considering filing a police complaint.

PTI inputs