Varanasi: A professor of Banaras Hindu University Shail Kumar Chaube has been given compulsory retirement for alleged sexual harassment of female students during an academic tour to Odisha in 2018. The BHU Executive Council in its meeting held in New Delhi on Friday decided to give him compulsory retirement for his sexual misconduct.
The BHU vice-chancellor Prof. Rakesh Bhatnagar, who chairs the EC, said that a decision was taken in this regard, though he did not share more details. However, a BHU official on the condition of anonymity confirmed that Chaube was given compulsory retirement.
Soon after returning from the academic tour a group of female students had given a written complaint to the VC alleging that Chaube passed on ‘vulgar comments’ and also made ‘obscene gestures’ during the tour. He took them to the Nandankanan Zoological Park and then to the Konark Sun Temple, where he made obscene gestures while explaining about the sculpture. After receiving the complaint, the VC suspended Chaube, and directed the varsity’s Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) to look into the matter.
His suspension was revoked by the EC in June this year. The HC, however, censured him as a punishment that blocked his important future assignments. Irked by his reinstatement a group of students went on sit-in stir on September 14 demanding his ouster from the university. The stir was ended on September 15 only after the university administration decided to refer back the matter to the EC for review and Chaube was sent on a long leave.
