- By Abhirupa Kundu
- Wed, 17 Jan 2024 10:43 AM (IST)
- Source:JND
The Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIM-C) removed its director-in-charge Sahadeb Sarkar appointing Professor Saibal Chattopadhyay to the post in the wake of the receipt of a written complaint recommending his removal to ensure impartial inquiry into an allegation of sexual harassment against Sarkar. The institute in a statement said that its Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) recommended the Board Of Governors (BoG) for his "removal during an inquiry".
The institute said that his removal was aimed to ensure a fair probe into the allegations of sexual abuse against him and did not comprise the IIM-C's board's opinion on the merits of the accusations.
Significantly, Sarkar is the third director-in-charge to be dismissed or who has quit prematurely since 2021.
Denying the sexual abuse allegations, Sarkar said that he was shocked by the "baseless allegations" made against him. "I emphatically deny the allegations made against me. I am shocked with the baseless allegations. In any case this seems to be an official press release by the management and I am prevented from speaking to the press by the POSH rules 17(6) of the institute. I will address this appropriately at an appropriate forum," he said, reported the Hindustan Times.
Meanwhile, the statement released by IIM-C read: "The ICC of the Institute has been in receipt of written complaint under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (“POSH Act”) against the Director-in-Charge Professor Sahadeb Sarkar. The ICC has ascertained that prima facie the complaint warrants a formal inquiry and communicated the same to the Board of Governors (BoG).
The BoG held a meeting on January 6 and accepted the recommendation of the ICC that the concerned person shall not continue in office and shall be removed from the post.
In line with the extant law, the next senior-most faculty member Professor Saibal Chattopadhyay was appointed as the director-in-charge with immediate effect, the statement said.