Bhopal: I will respond to police if they send notice to me, says Prof Mohanty

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The National Law Institute University (NLIU) Prof Tapan Ranjan Mohanty has said that if police issue a notice to him, he will respond appropriately. When asked whether he is planning any legal action, Mohanty said that it is for the police to take action.

Prof Mohanty has been charged with sexual harassment by female students of the NLUI. An FIR has been lodged against him at the Mahila Police Thana under section 354 of the IPC.

He said that he was not absconding though he was no longer living on the campus of the NLIU. “Why should I live in a place where the atmosphere is hostile against me,” he said.

Sources told Free Press that in the FIR, the Professor has been charged with allegedly touching female students inappropriately and misusing his position of authority.

Some students claimed that Professor Mohanty used to ask the girl students to send videos of their recordings singing film songs or dancing “so that he can judge their performance” for cultural events. He also used to rank students on the basis of their beauty.

Section 354 of the IPC reads: “Whoever assaults or uses criminal force to any woman, intending to outrage or knowing it to be likely that he will thereby outrage her modesty, shall be punished with impris­onment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both.” The offence is non-bailable and cognisable.