Over 200 students of Viharilal College of Home and Social Sciences started an indefinite agitation on Monday to protest the authorities’ decision to allow a teacher accused of molesting a student to continue taking classes.

The students stayed away from classes and gheraoed home science department head Minati Sen for more than five hours from noon, demanding that Indubhusan Mondal, the accused, be barred from entering the campus till the inquiry into the incident is completed.

“We will continue our agitation until Mondal is punished,” said Swagata Pali, the general secretary of the college’s students’ forum.

“We are doing the needful to find out the truth,” said Shyamal Sarkar, the secretary of the science faculty of Calcutta University, to which the college is affiliated.

A postgraduate student of the college had submitted a written complaint to the university authorities in the first week of December, stating that Mondal had molested her in a computer laboratory. She said the Bengali teacher had offered to provide her tips on computer operations.

The university’s syndicate had set up a one-woman inquiry commission last month to probe the allegation. The panel is to submit the report this week.

The students have accused the authorities of “deliberately” trying to “protect” Mondal because of his links with the ruling CPM.