The building that houses the Sanskrit centre at JNU’s School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies

New Delhi, Sept. 5: Sexual harassment has reared its head at Jawaharlal Nehru University, generally considered the most gender-sensitive of the capital’s varsities.

Nine Sanskrit students have accused the head of their department, Choudhury Upender Rao, of “making their lives miserable” through a combination of comments, gestures and orders.

JNU vice-chancellor B.B. Bhattacharya confirmed that the girls have written to him, and said he would take “appropriate action”.

“The allegations are serious. An inquiry is being conducted into them, and if the accused professor is found guilty, he will face the consequences,” Bhattacharya told The Telegraph.

Rao said he was “tired and will explain in detail tomorrow”.

The JNU Students Union (JNUSU) is formulating a “plan of action” against Rao as well as an “inept” administration, president Dhananjay Tripathi said.

JNU’s Gender Sensitisation Committee Against Sexual Harassment (GSCASH), a body of students elected along with the students union, will submit a report on the incident in a week’s time, officials said.

A group of four girls from the university’s Special Centre for Sanskrit Studies (SCSS) wrote to Bhattacharya on August 24, claiming that Rao would ask them for favours in return for academic help.

“These (four) girls have also said in their complaints that Rao would ask them to stay back late into the evenings at the centre if they wanted his help,” an official associated with the GSCASH said. Occasionally, the girls said, Rao would “order” them to stay back late.

On Saturday, five more complained to Bhattacharya, primarily about the manner in which Rao looked at them.

“On one occasion, a girl said, he even made an obscene gesture at her,” the GSCASH source said.

A student of Rao — not one of the complainants — said she was “glad” the girls had complained. “He never harassed me personally, but all the girls at the centre would individually confirm that they felt uncomfortable in the presence of Rao,” the girl said.

The controversy comes close on the heels of a similar uproar in Delhi University, which sacked two professors for harassing girl students.

In another incident in late August, a Mexican student at the university alleged that her PhD guide sexually harassed her, forcing her to complain to her country’s embassy before leaving India. The professor has been showcaused.