Kolkata: After receiving fresh complaints of alleged sexual harassment against Visva-Bharati University Vice-Chancellor Sushanta Datta Gupta, the West Bengal Commission for Women has appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and HRD minister Smriti Irani to remove him.
"We continue to receive complaints of gender related harassment by Prof Sushanta Datta Gupta. Young women, students, teachers and employees are being subjected to sexual and gender related harassment by him and also his administration at Visva Bharati on a regular basis," the commission`s chairperson Sunanda Mukherjee wrote in separate letters to the PM and HRD minister.
A central varsity started by Rabindranath Tagore in Santiniketan, Visva Bharati has the Prime Minister as its chancellor.
Expressing her concern about the matter, the women`s panel head said, "You are requested to remove Prof Datta Gupta from the post of Vice-Chancellor immediately as previously requested by us, and take strict disciplinary actions against him for his sexual, administrative and financial misconduct at S N Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, IISER, Kolkata and at Visva Bharati."
During his tenure at the IISER, Datta Gupta was accused of sexually harassing a lady professor in 2004 but was later on appointed as the VC of Visva Bharati despite pending investigation against him.
Earlier in the year, he was selected for the Padma Shri awards, which was however not finally awarded to him after complaints from the state women commission and the National Commission for Women. Datta Gupta has denied all the charges and described it as a malicious campaign against him.
