AGRA: Quashing the lower court's verdict of an acquittal, the Aligarh sessions court on Friday convicted an Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) professor for sexually harassing a foreign research scholar in 2015. The court sentenced him to one year of rigorous imprisonment. Subsequently, he was granted interim bail.
While hearing an appeal filed by the state government against the lower court's order, which had acquitted the accused, who is a professor at the university's business administration department, in September 2018, additional district and sessions judge Rajesh Bhardwaj quashed the verdict and convicted the accused.
Additional district government counsel Krishna Murari Johri told TOI that the lower court had acquitted the professor on the basis of an inquiry report by the university. "The university's inquiry committee report is a departmental inquiry and the verdict cannot be pronounced on its basis," he said.
Johri challenged the lower court's order and argued that acquitting the accused on the grounds that the victim did not give an explanation for the delay in filing the FIR was "illegal", as the "woman is a foreign national and didn't have knowledge of Indian laws".
In his order, justice Bhardwaj stated that foreign students visit other countries for their studies and in such situations, the country's "national image is at stake". "The crime committed is enough to adversely affect India's image internationally," he said.
The accused professor meanwhile told TOI that he will challenge the sessions court order in the HC.
Earlier, the research scholar had claimed that the accused used to summon her to his chamber and used to make her sit in front of him for long hours without any substantial work regarding research. Even before commencing formal PhD work, the accused tried to make "unwelcome advances and explicit sexual overtures" and stalked her on the internet.
(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme court directives on cases related to sexual assault)
