Bengaluru, March 26 A professor at a medical college near here was allegedly beaten up by students after he proposed to a female student in a classroom, with videos of the incident going viral on social media, police said on Thursday.
He has been booked on charges of sexual harassment, they said.
The incident, which occurred on March 23 at a medical college in the Nelamangala taluk on the outskirts of Bengaluru, came to light after videos of the proposal surfaced online, police said.
The clips, which have since gone viral, drew sharp criticism.
In one of the videos, the accused professor is heard proposing to the student, claiming that she had confessed her "feelings" to him. The student denied the claim and objected to his proposal.
The situation later escalated on campus, with videos showing the agitated student confronting the professor. She was seen hitting him with slippers, while other students joined in, allegedly assaulting and abusing him.
Based on a complaint filed by the college principal on Thursday, a case has been registered at the Nelamangala Rural Police Station against the accused under Sections 74 (assault or criminal force against a woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 75(1) (sexual harassment), and 329(3) (criminal trespass) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, a senior police officer said.
According to the FIR, the complainant stated that the accused, an assistant professor in the Microbiology Department, had been behaving inappropriately on the college premises and sexually harassing female students.
Students had earlier submitted complaints seeking protection, following which the college issued a notice to the professor, directing him to appear for an inquiry and restraining him from entering the campus during the process, it said.
However, on March 23, the accused allegedly entered the college premises in violation of the directive and forcibly held the hand of a female student, behaving in an obscene and inappropriate manner, the FIR stated.
The incident caused distress among students and disrupted the academic atmosphere at the college, it added.
The complaint further alleged that despite being barred from entering the campus, the accused trespassed into the premises, misbehaved with the student, and harassed others as well, police added.