FIR filed against four IIT Kanpur professors under SC/ST Act for ‘harassing’ faculty member

A scheduled caste faculty member at the Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur (IIT-K) has alleged that four professors have harassed him. The IIT professors -- Eshan Sharma, Sanjay Mittal, Rajiv Shekhar, CS Upadhyay -- and an unidentified person have been booked under relevant sections of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, said Superintendent of Police (West) Sanjiv Suman.

Subrahmanyam Saderla, a faculty member at the institute's aerospace department who is also an alumnus of the IIT-Kanpur, alleged that the professors and others spread rumours that he benefited from reservation and is not competent enough to answer questions.

An IIT official said Saderla had also written an e-mail to the IIT director and the head of aerospace engineering department, Prof A K Ghosh, drawing their attention towards alleged harassment.

Established in 1960 as one of the first Indian Institutes of Technology, the institute was created with the assistance of a consortium of nine US research universities as part of the Kanpur Indo-American Programme.