A 45-year-old Indian-origin dean of a prestigious US law school has resigned from his post, days after a lawsuit was filed against him by his executive assistant alleging that he sexually harassed her over a period of several months.
Sujit Choudhry, had initially taken an indefinite leave of absence after the lawsuit was filed earlier this week but the Berkeley Law School announced that he had resigned from his post and his resignation was accepted on Thursday.
Choudhry had also “admitted” in a campus investigative report, dated July 2015, that he had hugged and kissed his executive assistant but there was no “sexual intent” to his conduct towards her.
The school admitted that criticism against it for not removing Choudhry from his post immediately after the allegations had surfaced is legitimate.
The victim filed the lawsuit this week in Alameda County Superior Court in California that sues him for sexual harassment, failure to prevent harassment, retaliation, infliction of emotional distress and assault. The lawsuit alleges that Choudhry hugged and kissed her almost daily and the harassment began in September 2014 until March 2015.
The July 2015 campus investigative report corroborated the claims made by the victim and also said that Choudhry “admitted” to hugging, kissing her on the cheek, touching her shoulders and arms from behind while she sat at her desk, squeezing her arm when he passed by her desk and holding her hands to his waist.
He however “defends” his actions saying there was no “sexual intent” to his conduct towards her and instead it was a way to express gratitude” to Sorrell, the investigation report said.
The report, which did not name the assistant, said that she had written a six page email in March 2015 to Choudhry detailing her objections to “rude and demeaning conduct and sexual harassment” by him towards her, “including unwelcome touching and kissing.”
The investigation report had concluded that “By a preponderance of the evidence,” Choudhry had “violated the sexual harassment provisions of the UC Policy on Sexual Harassment and Sexual Violence.”
UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks and Provost Claude Steele said in a statement that they were wrong to not to take action against Choudhry even though the investigative report had supported the victims claims.
“The dean’s resignation is an outcome in the best interests of Berkeley Law and the university as a whole. At the same time we are under no illusion that a resignation could or even should bring this matter and broader, related issues to a close,” they said.
“It is clear, as we heard during our meeting with law school faculty this morning, that the initial decision not to remove the dean from his position is the subject of legitimate criticism,” they added.
PTI