New Delhi: Ashish Joshi, the media coordinator of the Association of Old Stephanians, on Friday said that principal Valson Thampu should be immediately sacked following the complaint that he attempted to shield college's bursar Satish Kumar, who has been accused of sexual harassment by a research scholar.
"As Stephanians, we are aghast and shocked that our principal of such a prestigious college has stooped to such a level that he has been pressurising the sexual harassment victim to take back her complaint and hash up the matter. Yesterday, she has filed the recordings of the conversation with Mr Thampu and Satish Kumar where they can be heard saying that and pressurising her to take down her case and Satish Kumar saying that I will complete your PhD," Joshi said.
He said that Thampu does not deserve to be the principal even for a single day.
"In fact, the association of Old Stephanians have issued a press release and we have demanded that the supreme body and the governing council of St Stephens College should immediately sack the principal. And we have also sought action against Vice Chancellor, Mr Dinesh Singh, of Delhi University for turning a blind eye because this is the fifth sexual harassment case in our college and all previous four cases have been hushed up like this," said Joshi.
"And the reason for this is also that Mr. Thampu has been embolden because eminent Stephanians like Mani Shankar Iyer, Kapil Sibal, Shashi Tharoor, Manmohan Sarin (former judge and now a member of the governing body), have just turned a blind eye and ignored the illegalities of Mr Thampu," he added.
The researcher, who accused Kumar of sexual harassment, has filed the audio recordings of the four meetings which she had with the principal and bursar.
She has claimed that the college principal discouraged her from filing the complaint or calling the incidents as the incidents of ' sexual harassment.'
As per the recordings, the victim was also advised not to approach the police as it would lead to 'media attention' and 'defamation'.
However, the authenticity of the recordings has not been verified yet.
