Teachers of St. Stephen’s College have sought the intervention of the women’s commission, objecting to a Facebook post by Principal Valson Thampu, where he has written about the sexual harassment complaint of a research scholar.
Around 30 teachers from the college have filed a petition with the National Commission for Women (NCW) and Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) attacking Mr. Thampu after he gave a clean-chit to the accused professor.
“Despite a criminal investigation pending and the matter being sub-judice, Mr. Thampu has, in a series of Facebook posts, come out in support of [accused professor] Satish Kumar and has termed his defence of him as the most heroic thing he has done in his life.
“Mr. Thampu had also taunted the sexual harassment victim by saying that if she had come to him directly he would have helped. He had gone to term the sexual harassment complaint a ‘diabolic lie’. Mr. Thampu has also hit out at women’s rights groups that supported the victim as ‘handlers’,” the joint petition stated.
“We demand strong action against the Principal for his highly improper comments and verbal attacks on the research scholar, as well as members of the staff who spoke out against the sexual harassment episode and the college’s handling of the issue,” it added.
In the most recent Facebook post, Mr. Thampu claimed that he only “stood by a disabled colleague who was hounded precisely because he was upright and incorruptible”.
The DCW had last month taken cognizance of the controversial Facebook posts and issued him a show-cause notice.
Mr. Thampu was not available for comments on the matter.
The St. Stephen’s Principal had written
on Facebook about the harassment complaint
of the research scholar
