Sexual harassment case: Dalits protest Prof’s transfer

MYSORE: The sudden transfer of zoology professor Shivabasavaiah to Kuvempu University is snowballing into a major controversy with Dalit students protesting against it on Thursday.
They staged a protest, asking the government to cancel the transfer and post him back to the University of Mysore.
The Dalit Vidyarthi Ookuta, a forum of Dalit students, held a procession inside Manasagangotri, the PG campus, after classes were boycotted.Taking exception to the transfer, they said it is premature since the case is pending in the court and the departmental probe in on. Transfer Shivabasavaiah now amounts to harassing the professor, they said.
They asked M Saritha, the research scholar who charged Shivabasavaiah of sexually harassing her, to be relived from the project work, saying she has violated the varsity’s code of conduct by speaking against it.
Meanwhile, Shivabasavaiah has not reported to duty at the Kuvempu University on Thursday.