After stepping down from the post two years ago, former JNU Students’ Union president Akbar Chaudhary has been cleared of the sexual harassment charges by the authorities.
“The Executive Council resolved to accept the report of the Appeals Committee that this is a case of breach of mutual trust rather than of sexual harassment.... Therefore, the punishment stands null and void,” said an official order issued by the university.
A female student had filed a complaint against Chaudhary and then JNUSU Joint Secretary Sarfaraz Hamid of sexual harassment in 2014 before the varsity’s Gender Sensitisation Committee against Sexual Harassment (GSCASH) which deals with complaints of this nature.
Both of them had stepped down from their posts and said they took the decision in order to allow a fair inquiry. GSCASH had found Chaudhary and Hamid guilty of “slandering and character blaming of the girl student” and the university had then suspended their hostel facility for one semester.