What will you do with a teacher who comes dangerously close to us female students and tries to touch and that too inappropriately? We are not idiots to take it as a fatherly attitude because this teacher wastes no opportunities in making innuendos with sexual overtones and dialogues with double meaning,” alleged one of the five female post-graduate students of one of Tiruchirappalli’s most famous colleges while recounting their ordeal to The Pioneer.
The controversial teacher is Prof P Chandramohan, head of the department of Tamil, Bishop Heber College, Tiruchirappalli.
The students have submitted a complaint to the college principal explaining in details how Chandramohan, has been sexually harassing them with the connivance of another teacher. “This man has no qualms in sitting near us and encourage us to be free with him. He regularly summons female students to his private chambers in the college premises,” said another student.
These girls are not ordinary students but the upcoming stars of Anglo/Tamil literature who are known for their in-depth erudition and knowledge in history and literature.
“They are in the college not to enjoy the spirit of youthfulness but to study and master the philosophy behind ancient and modern literature,” said a teacher who is privy to what was transpiring in the department headed by Prof Chandramohan.
The accused professor is also not an ordinary teacher and he is widely respected in the literary and religious societies in the State. But Prof Chandramohan, in his enthusiasm to be known as a colourful personality seemed to have crossed the Lakshman Rekha, according to one of his colleagues in the college.
The name of a lady teacher too figures in the complaint submitted by the students. “She was being blackmailed by the professor to make the girl students to toe his line. But the teacher should have shown the courage to resist his advances,” said one of the victims.
Instances of students and teachers getting sexually molested and abused are nothing new in elite educational institutions in Tamil Nadu. The Pioneer had reported in 2016 how celebrated novelist Josephine Jeyashanti, working as a professor in the famous Loyola College in Chennai was axed because she showed courage to resist attempts by her head of the department to violate her modesty. Even after six years, Jeyashanti continues her struggle to get justice.
The famous Madras Christian College, an important landmark in Chennai too figured in the news for wrong reasons. Similar to what happened in Bishop Hebert College, the villain in the incident turned out to be a professor in MCC.
The last two months saw students and ex-students of two elite schools in the city raising a banner of revolt against members of the faculty for trying to outrage their modesty.
The management of Bishop Heber College has put Prof Chandramohan under suspension and a probe is on to find out the seriousness of the charges. If the versions of other students are any indication, the learned professor is likely to face more allegations of this kind.