KOCHI: A Syndicate meeting of the Cochin University of Science and Technology (Cusat) held here on Friday decided to suspend three faculty members of the Department of Marine Geology and Geophysics on the charge of continuously harassing a postgraduate student after accusing her of plagiarism.
The suspended faculty members are K. Sajan, Professor and Head of the Department, and Assistant Professors Ajayakumar P., and N. R. Nisha. The meeting authorised Vice Chancellor J. Letha to appoint a judicial commission to probe the issue. The disciplinary action was taken on the basis of the report of a Syndicate sub-committee, which concluded that the allegations of plagiarism against the student were baseless. The committee also concluded that the faculty members were continuously harassing the third-semester M.Sc student.
The faculty members had alleged that she had tried to present a research abstract before the National Council for Agricultural Research for a poster presentation, by including the name of one of the suspended faculty members. They had accused the student of having used the name of the faculty member without getting his consent. However, the student had sought the permission of the faculty members through e-mail to use the abstract. She later withdrew the abstract as there was no response from the faculty members. The student also rejected the charge that she had published any data without getting the consent of the faculty members.
The authorities pointed out that the student was served a memo on the charge of stealing data and violating an agreement with the national agency that no such data would be published. She was also quizzed before the department council on the charge of plagiarism. The university authorities had assured the student, who later left for New Delhi to be with her parents, that she would not face any further harassment. However, she along with her parents, complained that the harassment continued. They said that attempts were made to deny her a chance to appear for the semester examination on the ground that she lacked the mandatory attendance. The committee also found that the head of the department failed to recommend relaxation based on the medical certificate produced by the student. The girl’s father had also filed a police complaint against the faculty members for harassment.
