A teacher of the Department of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering of Islamic University in Kushtia has been barred from attending academic activities for his alleged involvement in sexually harassing 22 female students of the department.
The action was taken against the teacher, Azizul Islam, an associate professor of the department, as the victims on June 22 filed a complaint with the department chairman seeking punitive action against Azizul.
The female students of different academic years alleged that Azizul, at different times, proposed to them to make an intimate relationship with him and behaved inappropriately with them, the complaint said.
It alleged that Azizul made video calls to one of the victims through the online conversation app, imo, threatened her to lower her grade in academic results in case of her failure to receive his calls, sent obscene messages, and made sexually suggestive remarks.
Finding no way, the victims became united and submitted a complaint against Azizul to the head of the department.
The department鈥檚 professor, AKM Nazmul Huda, said that they, after receiving the complaint, barred the teacher from academic activities.
He said that they found the students鈥� allegations to be credible.
Azizul Islam, however, declined to make any comments on the issue.
Earlier, the university authorities permanently expelled a teacher, Hafizul Islam, of the Development Studies department as allegations of sexual harassment and abusing students against him were found to be true.
The decision was taken at the university鈥檚 268th syndicate meeting on May 31.