On Wednesday, 21st December 2022, a professor at the Rajasthan Technical University in Kota was detained after it was alleged that he had pressured a final-year student for sexual favours and had failed her in the course when she refused. The professor is identified as Girish Parmar. A male student who had conveyed the professor’s demand to the victim student has also been arrested by police. The girl lives at the university hostel.
Deputy Superintendent of Police Amar Singh Rathore said, “The final-year student filed a police complaint alleging that the professor sought to exert pressure on her through a classmate. Along with the professor, the classmate was also taken into custody.” An audio recording of a discussion between the professor and a classmate went viral on social media, in which the professor was allegedly heard making vulgar remarks about the victim.
DSP Rathore further said, “The case against the professor was registered at the Dadabhari police station on Tuesday. He has been booked under sections 354 D (stalking) and 509 (word, gesture, or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code. Statement of the victim and another female student was recorded on Wednesday, after which the accused were arrested.”
He added, “The complainant mentioned the name of another victim in her complaint. Statements from both of them were recorded. We are collecting details in the matter to ascertain how many other victims are there.”
According to reports, the male student holding communication between the victim and the professor is identified as Arpit Agarwal. Arpit along with another girl student trapped the victim. Arpit’s associate girl student informed the victim that she failed in a project and a subject as well and that she is been asked to contact Arpit in this regard.
Arpit then took the victim girl out of the university campus and made her sit in the professor’s car. Arpit told her that he only does all the tasks assigned by Girish Parmar. Meanwhile, the victim girl started recording a video on her mobile camera. Seeing this, Arpit told her that he can’t help her if she does not wish to pass the subjects.
On being asked how Arpit would help the victim girl in passing the subjects, he told the victim that the professor wants to establish a physical relationship with her. Arpit also informed the victim that professor Girish Parmar has sent a credit card with him and asked him to do the shopping for the victim. Arpit also showed the answer sheets to the girl which were kept in the car. He gave the victim girl’s answer sheet and told her that she can write answers in the same and pass the subjects, the only condition being she fulfils the professor’s demand.
When the victim girl refused to fulfil the professor’s demand, Arpit told her that her degree course of 4 years cannot be completed in 8 years if she fails to do so. He also told her that the professor has passed many girls in the past in the same fashion and that she has to do this only once and she will get expensive gifts from the professor just like other girls.
However, the girl refused and decided to lodge a complaint with the police instead. Following the registration of the complaint, professor Girish Parmar and student Arpit were arrested by the police on Wednesday night. The police have also registered another case against the professor after another female student lodged a complaint alleging similar harassment.
The police have also found an audio recording between the professor and a B.Tech final-year student where he was making similar demands. In that recording, which is reportedly from August this year, Girish Parmar had promised to help her win student union elections in return for sexual favours. However, he could not make her win, and after that, he failed 28 students out of 35 students in the class for not voting for that girl.
It is alleged that the professor has harassed many such female students in the past. Arpit Agarwal worked as a broker of the professor in all those cases. It has also been alleged that when earlier such allegations were made against the professor, the university administration dismissed them, and no victim went to the police.
Shoe thrown at vice-chancellor, professor suspended
After the matter came to light, students in the university created a ruckus protesting against the professor. They held protests for around 3 hours demanding action against Girish Parmar. Students sat on protests at around 10 am in the morning in front of the university gate.
Rajasthan Technical University’s vice chancellor S K Singh reached the spot to talk to the protesting students. But during the discussions, someone threw a shoe at the VC, escalating tensions.
Later VC S K Singh informed the students that professor Girish Parmar has been suspended. A 3-member committee formed by the university submitted its initial report, based on which the professor was suspended. The students ended the protests after that.
Both the accused were presented in court on Thursday afternoon. In the court premises, one lawyer tried to slap professor Girish Parmar, but he was quickly moved into the court by the police.
