Senior TISS officer arrested for allegedly raping staff member

Mumbai: The Trombay police on Sunday arrested a senior officer with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) for allegedly raping a staff member, initially under the promise of giving a job to her brother and the husband of her sister, and later by threatening to terminate the services of her brother.
Acting on the woman’s complaint, the Trombay police booked the senior officer under Sections 376 (rape), 376(2)(n) (raping the same woman repeatedly), 354D (stalking), 501 (printing or engraving matter known to be defamatory), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code. He was arrested on Sunday and produced before a metropolitan magistrate court which remanded him to police custody till March 27.
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In her complaint to the police, the woman has alleged that the accused promised to secure jobs in TISS for her brother and her sister’s husband, and raped her multiple times in Delhi and Hyderabad. She further claimed that he threatened to get her brother thrown out of his job. She added that even his wife had threatened to send her photographs with the accused to their office (TISS) to smear her image.
Professor Manoj Kumar Tiwari, in-charge VC of TISS, confirmed the arrest and said, “After the arrest, we immediately suspended the person and sent the matter to the Internal Complaints Committee too.”
Meanwhile, the Progressive Students’ Forum, (PSF), a TISS students’ collective, demanded strict action against the deputy registrar. In a letter written to the vice-chancellor, the PSF stated that this was not an isolated incident. The collective also raised questions about the administration’s commitment to creating a gender-just and safe space in the institute.
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“We believe it is the bare minimum responsibility of any university administration to ensure safe spaces at campus and build confidence among students. In the context of the recent development, the PSF demands that the administration bring clarity on the issue. We also demand that all cases of sexual harassment must be fairly and transparently investigated by the Internal Complaints Committee. The institute’s leadership must also speak to the students and adopt concrete steps towards creating safe spaces for students on the campus,” reads the letter.
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