The Bengaluru police on Monday booked Infosys co-founder Senapathy Kris Gopalakrishnan, former Indian Institute of Science (IISc) director Balaram P and 16 others under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act following a complaint by a former IISc faculty member.
The case was filed at the Sadashiva Nagar police station as per the directive of the 71st City Civil and Sessions Court (CCH). The complaint against the accused was lodged by Sanna Durgappa, a member of the Bovi community and former assistant professor at IISc’s Centre for Sustainable Technology. Durgappa claimed that he was falsely implicated in a honey trap case in 2014, leading to his dismissal from IISC, where Kris Gopalakrishnan serves as a member of the Board of Trustees. He also alleged caste-based abuse and threats.
In the petition to the court, he alleged that he was accused of calling a married woman “beautiful”. The woman filed a complaint before the Sexual Harassment Complaints Committee (SHCC) committee, which concluded that the term “beautiful” invited sexual harassment, and Durgappa was fired from his job.
Durgappa argued that under Supreme Court guidelines, there must be one NGO representative in the SHCC, but such a member was not involved with the committee. Durgappa requested an investigation from a Karnataka Legislative Assembly SC/ST committee in August 2017. The investigation report, which came a month later, said there was no sexual harassment, and the Durgappa was singled out because he was a Dalit.
Durgappa stated that he was supposed to be reinstated at work. He said met with the director of IISc on two occasions—May 19, 2017, and October 9, 2020—during which he filed his review petition for reinstatement. However, he allegedly faced threats of police complaint. Alleging mistreatment by the administration over his caste, Durgappa then approached the court.
There was no immediate response from IISc or Kris Gopalakrishnan to the police case.
© The Indian Express (P) Ltd
