Assam Agricultural University

The authorities of Assam Agricultural University (AAU) on Monday suspended senior professor Jyoti Kr Gogoi for allegedly sexually assaulting a girl student of the university.

AAU vice chancellor (acting) Ashok Bhattacharyya said that a decision was taken to suspend Gogoi by the statutory body of the University as such charges were taken seriously.

A student of the College of Agriculture, AAU, had lodged a complaint with the sexual harassment committee of the university against senior professor Gogoi of sexually harassing her.

Bhattacharyya further said that following the suspension, the matter would be forwarded to the internal complaints committee of the University to probe the matter and recommend further action.

“The internal complaints committee might have a sitting in a couple of days to conduct an enquiry and recommend further action,” Bhattacharyya said.

The VC said that as far back as his knowledge went, this was the first such case in the university.

The undergraduate student of the College of Agriculture had lodged a complaint with the Sexual Harassment Committee of AAU against Gogoi of sexually harassing her at his office room in the Jorhat campus of the university on Friday.

According to an AAU source, the student seeking admission to a PG programme, alleged in her complaint that on Friday when she had gone to the cabin of professor Gogoi, the professor had sexually harassed her.

Gogoi is a professor in the department of Economics and Farm Management of the university.

The girl went to Gogoi’s cabin to know about the seat availability for third counselling in master’s degree.

The student alleged that on the pretext of showing the availability of seats the professor, called her to his side to show her the list on his desktop computer and touched her cheeks and held her back.

Smita Bhattacharyya is Northeast Now Correspondent in Jorhat. She can be reached at: [email protected]