Throughout the screenshots, the teacher asks her to “lie down” and strip.
Kolkata:
A physical education teacher has been suspended from Kolkata’s Scottish Church College after a second-year student accused him of sexually harassing her by sending explicit text messages.
The incident reportedly sparked protests by the students on campus on Thursday. Some students alleged that this is not the first time the teacher has harassed a student. The survivor had also reportedly informed the college administration about the harassment earlier, but no action was allegedly taken, leading to the protests. After the agitation by the students and a written complaint against the teacher by the survivor, the college authorities suspended the accused immediately on Thursday.
“With regard to a complaint received from a student of the college against a faculty member, the authority suspended the concerned teacher from service in the college with immediate effect till the governing body takes further decision,” said college principal Madhumanjari Mandal in a statement.
The teacher allegedly abused his authority and told the student that he will help her in studies in exchange for sexual favors from her. He would send her explicit messages and delete them later and ask her to delete them as well.
In screenshots of the WhatsApp conversations accessed by NDTV between the student and the teacher, Samir Roy, the latter asks her to strip. Throughout the thread of conversations, several messages sent by him have been deleted.
At one point, the student asks him what his wife does, to which she gets a “I only want you” reply from him after he evades the question. He also asks her if she “loves” him, to which she says “I love you as a teacher, you are very nice”.
“I’ll be able to help you with B.P.Ed (Bachelor of Physical Education) only after that…” he tells her in one of the messages, while what he means by “that” is not known.
In another screenshot, the student tells him that she has informed her mother of his text messages. “My mother has asked me to go back home and said that there is no need to study anymore,” she tells him. “You focus on studies, I will not bother you again, I promise,” he replies.
Throughout the screenshots, the teacher asks her to “lie down” and strip and makes suggestive remarks.
When the student seems to have enough of this, she tells him “I can complain about you if I want, I have proof.” “I am like your daughter and you said all that to me,” she says.
The teacher apologises to her. “Whatever you said to me impacted my studies. You don’t deserve the respect a teacher deserves. I am not safe at the playground because of you,” she says.
The teacher has allegedly been harassing the student since her admission in 2023. She reportedly informed the college authorities of his behaviour during Durga Puja but did not make any formal complaint due to lack of evidence.
