The West Bengal Commission for Women has sought from the Bidhannagar police commissionerate details of the investigation into complaints lodged by a former St Xavier’s University teacher alleging that the authorities forced her to resign because of clothes she wore in private.
The commission acted “suo motu” taking cognizance of news reports on the alleged harassment of the teacher, its chairperson Leena Gangopadhyay said.
The commission is planning to speak to the university after going through the police report, Gangopadhyay said.
“Another mail with the same content has been sent to the Technocity police station. We will decide on our next course of action after going through the report. We want to know what is the status of the probe into her complaints, which include how her photos were procured,” Gangopadhyay told The Telegraph on Saturday.
“The commission finds it unacceptable that a teacher of St Xavier’s University could lose her job because of something she did in her private space,” she said.
The woman who is a resident of Mukundapur, off EM Bypass, had lodged a complaint with East Jadavpur police station in November 2021.
The case was transferred to Technocity police station, in whose jurisdiction the university falls, in February this year.
The former teacher told this newspaper on Saturday: “The Technocity police station told me that they are aware of the case. But because no FIR was drawn, they told me to lodge another complaint. The second complaint was about tracking down those who had leaked pictures from my Instagram account that could only be viewed by people I explicitly give access to in the form of approval of their follow requests. At least an FIR was lodged on the basis of the second complaint.”
“I want the police to find out how these photos could get leaked,” she said.
The teacher had said in her complaint to the East Jadavpur police station that a guardian had said in a letter to the university last October that he had “spotted” his son looking at “objectionable” photographs of her on Instagram.
“This has been a gross and criminal violation of my right to privacy and my photographs have been used to morally police me and aspersions have been cast on my character,” she wrote.
Calls and text messages to the university’s vice-chancellor, Father Felix Raj, went unanswered for the third day in a row.
Gangopadhyay of the women’s commission said: “What has happened should not have happened. I find the attitude of the guardian objectionable.”
Social scientist Partha Chatterjee had told Metro on Friday: “The guardian of a student is lodging a complaint about this and, as a consequence, a teacher is losing her job. It is absolutely unthinkable.”
An online campaign seeking action against VC Father Felix Raj, who allegedly put pressure on the teacher to resign because of an act in her private space, has garnered over 18,000 signatures in three days.
Debanjana Paul, who graduated from St Xavier’s College, Kolkata, in 2002 and has signed the online petition, said an individual’s personal space was his or her own and nobody, including “college and university” authorities, should have anything to say about it unless the person makes a statement about the institution.
“What I find disturbing is that a university student (who is nearly an adult), finds a picture in a swimsuit shocking. Why? This speaks volumes about the kind of upbringing he has had,” Paul, who now stays in the UK, told The Telegraph.
“I am happy I was a student at St Xavier’s College when personal freedom was respected,” she added.
