In a worrisome situation, a Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER), Puducherry resident doctor complained against a faculty member for allegedly sending an obscene email on September 30, 2023. The resident doctor, Dr Rosha Sandesh, is a final-year student from the Department of Pharmacology.
As a last resort to identify the faculty member who had sent the email, Sandesh took to X (formerly known as Twitter) explaining the situation she was in and urging for the fast-tracking of the cybercrime complaint. Although she filed the complaint in October, the accused, whose IP address initially turned out to be fake, later was untraceable. As per the resident doctor's statement, she received an email on September 30 at 2.04 am asking for sexual favours.
Statement from letter
As per the student, she received an email from the mail ID of a faculty member from the same department stating that he has a "deep crush" on her. Further, he described her by comparing her "exquisite beauty", especially physical beauty as a "work of art, a masterpiece crafted by the hands of the universe".
The sender asked Sandesh to meet him after the MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery) practical classes every Friday "stylishly dressed in pink coloured sleeveless". Failing to do so, she was threatened that she would be harassed in front of other residents and would not be allowed to appear in the final MD (Doctor of Medicine) exams.
Moreover, the sender stated that if she obliged his wishes, he would make sure that the rest of her residency would remain comfortable and she would pass the final MD in her first attempt. She was additionally threatened that she would be failed in the exams if she disclosed details of the email to anyone.
Incident being suppressed?
Despite complaining to the administration, Sandesh opines the incident is being suppressed. "Even though I am willing to file a police complaint, I don't have strong evidence to prove who the suspect is," Dr Rosha Sandesh told EdexLive.
As per the details shared with EdexLive, the college has formed an Internal Complaint Committee for Women (ICCW) committee to inquire into the matter.
Speaking to EdexLive, ICCW Chairperson Dr Sujatha Sistla said, "The committee has completed the inquiry and has submitted the report to the director's office." Further, she refused to disclose the findings of the report as they were confidential.
However, Sandesh said, "After multiple requests, I received the report recently, which stated this was done for personal gain by someone else, not the accused faculty member. However, no solid substantiation was given, which raises questions on the intentions of the report."
Additionally, as per the statement shared by the student, she mentioned that the JIPMER director sidelined the matter by saying, "It is not a big thing".
"Another concern is that I am being treated as an accused. I am being accused of sending the email to myself to defame the alleged suspect," Sandesh told EdexLive, adding that it is actually the suspect who is intentionally targeting her. Unable to face the toxic culture in the department, the resident even submitted her resignation a few months ago.
"Unnecessarily, the alleged suspect used to yell and scold me randomly and verbally harass me using expletive words," she alleges."Throughout the process of this inquiry, he has only kept telling people that I have sent this to myself to frame him," the statement added.
No support
Sandesh told EdexLive that except for two faculty members, others have been speaking behind her back, blaming her for the incident. "Staying in the department where the perpetrator is working has been hell for me and has led me to consider extreme steps," the statement added.
"I strongly suspect that this was done to me either to extract for sexual favours or to harass me mentally," she mentioned in the statement. Urging for the fast-tracking of the cybercrime complaint and a thorough inquiry of all members of the department, she said, "I don't want this to happen to anyone in future. Earlier there were two sexual harassment complaints against the suspect in 2016 and 2018. However, they were not escalated."
Governor extends support
Governor of Telangana and the Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan replied to the alleged victim's tweet saying, "Shoked ....forwarded for further enquiry and follow up."
