Jamia suspends assistant professor over sexual harassment charges

Jamia Millia Islamia has suspended an assistant professor of the Department of Psychology over alleged sexual harassment charges and gross misconduct on the campusThe administration has also begun an inquiry into professor Abid Husains conduct by the Internal Complaints Committee of the university on the complete facts of the caseHusain has rejected the allegations and accused the faculty members of plotting against himThis is the second time that a faculty member has been suspended over the alleged sexual misconduct on the campus in a monthIn the office memo JMI Registrar Nazim Hussain Zafri said the action against Husain was taken over a written complaint filed by seven faculty members of the Department of PsychologyIn the complaint the faculty members alleged that Husain was very aggressive and used abusive and unparliamentary language towards them particularly towards the head of the department in the presence of the Dean of the faculty during a meetingAlso Read SC refuses to entertain PIL seeking menstrual pain leave for female studentsHe suddenly became aggressive as well as started accusing all the faculty members and was impudent uncivilized discourteous disrespectful and uncouth in the meeting against all the faculty members As stated in the complaint Dr Abid had crossed all limits of decency and violated the Code of Conduct by not only verbally abusing her but also physically assaulted her in the presence of other faculty members the memo mentionedHe went to the extent of physically assaulting as well as made physical contact and tried to sexually assault her by making advances involving unwelcome and explicit sexual overturns and attacking the Head of the Department and levelled personal allegations on her as well as other colleagues the memo further saidThe assistant professor also tried to assault and used criminal force against the head of the department in a public meeting it saidThe Vice Chancellor JMI in terms of powers vested in her under the Statute 371 of the Statutes of the University has placed Dr Abid Husain Assistant Professor Department of Psychology Jamia Millia Islamia under suspension with immediate effect pending disciplinary proceedings separately an inquiry be conducted by the Internal Complaints Committee of the University on the complete facts of the case the memo readDuring the suspension period the headquarter of Dr Abid Husain Assistant Professor under suspension will be in New Delhi and he shall not leave the headquarter without prior approval of the Competent Authority it saidTalking to PTI Husain said the administration has not considered his version of eventsAll the allegations are fake and the university has not considered my version This is the personal vendetta of faculty members against me he saidEarlier this month JMI suspended S Veeramani assistant professor Department of Management Studies for allegedly sexually harassing a female studentThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever