Sexual harassment by teacher: JU student attempts suicide

A female student of Jahangirnagar University (JU) has reportedly attempted suicide by taking sleeping pills as her complaint of sexual harassment against a teacher was hushed up.

The victim, a 43th batch student of Department of Government and Politics of the university, alleged that assistant professor Sanowar Siraj repeatedly proposed for illicit physical relations on social media platform Facebook.

Sanowar Siraj, a teacher of the same department, also used to call the complainant, making sexual advances at regular basis, she said.

At one stage, the victim filed a written complaint against Sanowar Siraj bringing allegations of sexual harassment to Professor Nasrin Sultana, chairman of the department, on September 19.

Later, on September 23, the victim, a resident student of Pritilata Hall, attempted suicide by taking dozens of sleeping pills at her hall room as the department authorities allegedly tried to hush up the allegations of sexual harassment against Sanowar Siraj.

She was rescued and rushed to a local private hospital, where she was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the hospital for emergency treatment.

Later, on September 25, Department chairman Prof Nasrin Sultana sent the written complaint to the 'Sexual harassment Prevention Cell' of the university following the suicidal attempt of the victim.

Prior to this, the victim also filed a verbal complaint against the accused teacher to Professor Khandaker Shamsunnahar, former department chairman of the department. She also submitted call records, chatting history of sexual arrangement demanding action against the accused.

Instead of investigating the complaint against Sanowar Siraj, Prof Shamsunnahar threatened the victim with bad consequence and departmental action against her.

When asked about this, the former department chairman said the victim didn’t file any written complaint of sexual harassment against Sanowar Siraj to her.

“The student has made false and fabricated allegation against me,” Prof Shamsunnahar added.

Denying the allegations, Sanowar Siraj said, “I don’t know whether she (the victim) made allegations against me. Even, I don’t know whether she mentioned my mane in the complaint. So, it won’t be appropriate for me to give any statement in this regard.”

However, several screenshots of Facebook Massager chat with the proposal of illicit physical relations to the victim have already gone viral on the social media platform.

source:daily-sun