(The story was originally published on February 28, 2023)
A PhD scholar from IISER Pune attempted suicide in 2022 due to alleged plagiarism of her thesis. Her sister with whom she presently resides, claims that her health is still delicate, and alleges that despite this, the institute has not taken any action. Last month, the All India Research Scholars' Association (AIRSA) wrote to Rakesh Ranjan, Additional Secretary (TE) and Research Coordination, IISERs, seeking an appointment to discuss the scholar's case.
"We would like to bring your kind attention to the matter of harassment (of all sorts including sexual harassment) and atrocities done with a brilliant female student at IISER, Pune (running under the Ministry of Education, Govt of India), forcing the innocent female scholar to attempt suicide," the letter states.
"Multiple representations were sent to the Ministry of Education, Govt of India including the Hon’ble Minister of Education in the last six months beginning September 2022 onwards to save her life, career, and dignity but nothing was done. The authorities starting from the institution up to the highest level are protecting the culprits through all means," the document alleges further.
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Dr Lal Chandra Vishwakarma, President of AIRSA said, "We have not received any reply to our communication yet. But we want the government to take note. There are thousands of similar harassment incidents happening in a majority of institutions. Only a handful of them is reported because most of the scholars are afraid of the authorities."
He added that AIRSA has been requesting the government to employ some mechanism in the higher education institutions to keep such incidents in check. On February 17, the organisation held a nationwide protest over various issues, the chief among which were a hike in stipends and harassment of scholars in institutes. And the IISER Pune case was referred to in their press release.
The narrative
The PhD scholar's, on the condition of anonymity, says that her sister was pursuing an integrated PhD in Mathematics under Dr Anindya Goswami at IISER Pune. She has been living with her since the outbreak of COVID in 2020. However, the scholar was presenting her thesis from home to Goswami through online meetings, which were also attended by an MSc student Shristi Gupta. When Shristi presented her MSc thesis, the survivor's sister alleges that she had copied her sister's work entirely.
Dr Goswami had previously made sexual advances at the scholar but she had refused, she alleged in her statement to the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), adding that the consequence was the plagiarised thesis. She also mentioned to the institute several times that she wasn't feeling safe with her supervisor. "Just because my sister refused to compromise her modesty, she was treated in this way. It is highly unfair," she stated. However, fearing that Dr Goswami would damage her career if she complained, the scholar started working on a fresh thesis, which was ready to be published by July 2022.
"However, Gupta's name was once more put out as the author of this thesis. When questioned by my sister, Dr Goswami stated that he wanted to launch Gupta academically. Her request for a new supervisor was also denied by the institute. Unable to take it in, my sister attempted suicide," alleges a tearful sister of the scholar. She lodged an FIR and also mailed a detailed complaint to the director of IISER Pune. But she further alleges that no action was taken. The scholar's degrees are pending at the institute, she said.
IISER Pune's reply
When questioned by EdexLive, IISER Pune denied all the claims. An official from the institute, who wishes to remain anonymous, shared IISER Pune's statement on the incident, which was published on January 12 this year. "Despite the best efforts of the institute towards redressal, it is unfortunate that the student and her family could not be convinced of the institute’s response and have chosen to file an FIR against the supervisor and the IISER Pune administration," the statement reads.
According to the document, after receipt of the complaint, "The institute's academic ethics committee conducted an inquiry into the complaint. The committee found the PhD and master's research work to be collaborative in nature and have not found evidence for plagiarism as alleged. The committee found that the supervisor did not ensure proper sharing of credit between two collaborating PhD and master's students, and that the master's thesis did not acknowledge the PhD student's academic contribution."
"Thus, commensurate with the lapse, the supervisor has been disallowed from admitting any new thesis students in his research group for a year, and the Master's thesis has been asked to be modified in order to acknowledge the PhD student's academic contribution," the statement reads further. It also notes that an independent faculty member was assigned the work of collaborating between the scholar and Dr Goswami. The scholar was additionally offered counsellor support.
But the sister claims that these measures were inadequate. The scholar did not require counselling nor was the published thesis a collaborative work. Meanwhile, asked about the sexual harassment complaints, the official from IISER Pune stated that the institute had only received a complaint of plagiarism.
(The story was originally published on February 28, 2023)
