Bengal professor offers to resign amid 'marrying' student controversy

KOLKATA: A senior female professor of a university in West Bengal, who is in the eye of a storm following the circulation of a video showing her "marrying" a student inside a classroom, has offered to resign citing inability to continue her association with the varsity, a senior official said on Tuesday.

A purported video clip of the woman, head of the department of Applied Psychology at the state-run Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology (MAKAUT), performing Hindu Bengali marriage rituals with a first-year student of her department inside a classroom went viral on January 28, triggering a furore.

MAKAUT Registrar Partha Pratim Lahiri told PTI that the professor has sent an e-mail to his office in which she has expressed her inability to continue her association with the state-run university "in view of the current situation" arising out of the circulation of video which left her "mentally devastated".

"She has referred to the incident and thanked MAKAUT for allowing her the opportunity to work with the institution for the past few years," Lahiri said. Lahiri said that the teacher, who had been asked to go on leave following the controversy, sent the mail on February 1 and it is currently under process. "We will let you know our decision at the right time," he said.

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Video was shot inside classroom

The video clip, showing the teacher in all her bridal finery, was shot inside a classroom at the Haringhata campus of MAKAUT in the state's Nadia district. The professor, however, had claimed it was a play enacted as part of a psycho-drama project, which had been staged with the consent of students and the university.

She also alleged that one part of the play was deliberately leaked by a colleague who wanted to malign her and sabotage her career. The teacher had said that she would take legal steps to seek remedy for the harm done to her social and academic reputation.

The woman academic had been asked to go on leave by MAKAUT on January 29. The varsity had formed a five-member inquiry panel, all women faculty members, and the panel in its findings trashed the professor's claims about the video being a part of a psycho-drama project for documentation, another university official said.

"It was nothing but a cheap skit of a freshers' welcome programme and inappropriate for a senior teacher," the Officiating Vice-Chancellor, Tapash Chakraborty, said. The professor could not be reached for her comment on the matter.