IIT suspends Professor for remarks on SC, ST students

MUMBAI: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, has suspended the professor who purportedly abused students belonging to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes communities, and persons with disability (PWD) during an online class.

The institute has also ordered an internal inquiry against the teacher.

Seema Singh, an associate professor of English from the department of Humanities and Social Sciences, has been suspended until further orders, said Tamal Nath, IIT Kharagpur registrar.

“A fact-finding committee had been instituted to look into the allegations and has submitted its report. We are now instituting an internal inquiry.”

On April 24, a video was anonymously posted on the Facebook page ‘IIT KGP confessions’ -- an informal group of students on social media -that purportedly showed Singh hurling abuses at the students of a preparatory class and their parents for not attending classes.

The session was being attended by over 100 students and parents. Soon after the videos went viral, Singh apologised for her behaviour in an email.

“I am writing this to express my sincerest apology for what happened last week. It was definitely not my intention to hurt anyone… It was never the slightest intention to be discriminatory towards any segment of the student community,” read the email. She remained unavailable for comment on the suspension.

Meanwhile, the national commission for scheduled castes has taken suo motu cognisance of the matter and initiated an inquiry.