New Delhi: A former student of an assistant professor at Indira Gandhi National Open University has taken into remand after the professor alleged that he has been stalking her for the last two years.
She filed a complaint when the student did not stop stalking her despite her efforts and asking him to mind his conduct. She told police that a person named Sukhwinder Singh had enrolled for Diploma in Meat Technology program.
“As an academic counsellor, I conducted three sessions in the School of Agriculture, IGNOU. Thereafter, Singh started stalking me through emails that were not related to the academics and had obscene, offending and malicious content that lead to mental torture and agony,” reports India Today.
“After stalking for nine months, he gave an undertaking in writing to the Director, School of Agriculture in August 2016 that he would not repeat his actions and accepted that he had sent those objectionable, abusing emails and messages and promised to not repeat the same,” she said.
But the situation did not change and in January, she got emails from an ID with her own name.
She claimed that even a fake Facebook account in her name was created with her photographs which looked like the screenshots of the teleconferences she took part in.
She told police that Singh was communicating with her friends and maligning her reputation. What scared her the most was a post that said, “I would be coming to Delhi and would go back with the professor.”
“He messaged me that he was standing at the gate of the university and wanted to meet me,” she said.
A charge sheet was filed in this case and the student is in custody, the investigation officer told Mail Today.
According to the counsellors, at times, stalking by the students reach to such an extent that in some cases teachers have to even resign.
According to a news report, a teacher of a senior secondary school in Agra resigned after her student in Class X stalked and harassed her. The boy was so obsessed with the teacher that he even barged into her house on July 29 and tried to grope her. The victim alleged that he threatened her with acid attack if she tries to refuse his advances. The teacher resigned from the school when he did not mind his conduct.
“If the photo is morphed without the permission of the person involved, Section 66C of the IT Act, 2000, would apply under which an imprisonment of up to three years and a fine of up to 1lakh can be imposed. If the picture has nudity, then Section 67 of The IT Act, 2000, would apply which can result in an imprisonment of up to three years and a fine of five lakhs, if found guilty. Section 500 of the Indian Penal Code can also be imposed for defamation,” said Prashant Mali, advocate and cyber law expert.