JU student lodges sexual harassment complaint against teacher

A female student of Jahangirnagar University (JU) on Monday lodged a written complaint of sexual harassment against a teacher of the Marketing department in the name of counselling several times.

The victim, a student of the same department, lodged the complaint with the university's Anti-Sexual Harassment Cell in the morning.

Earlier on 23 March, the student, in a Facebook post, brought the allegation of sexual harassment against teacher Assistant Prof Saju Saha.

"Assistant Prof Saju Saha sexually harassed me in the name of counselling. Besides, he put his hand on me. He wanted to grab my feet in the restaurant to hook up with me. Because of this, I could not even do the class properly," reads the post.

"He is so confident that I can't prove anything ... Because he didn't leave anything to prove. But what I have is enough to prove his guilt. Even after so much harassment, I believed he would feel guilty. But there is no sign of regret in him. I maintained good behavior to finish the department (completion of academic study)," the post also reads.

Following the Facebook post, the accused teacher repeatedly tried to convince the victim, saying that his (the teacher's) political career would be spoiled once the matter gets disclosed.

On 24 March, Saju Saha also lodged a general diary with Mirpur Model Police Station seeking legal action against the student for uploading the Facebook post for maligning him on social media.

Asked about the harassment, the teacher defended himself, saying, "I'm surprised. In fact, all of a sudden, I don't even understand the allegations. I don't even understand what I did. As far as I understand from reading her post, it seems strange to me. She can say it better. I will follow legal path."

The department's chairman, Associate Prof Dr Ariful Haque, said they had seen the Facebook post but had not received any complaint from the student in this regard.

"We will take necessary measure once the complaint is lodged," he said.