Five teachers booked for harassment of staff member in Gurgaon

Five teachers of a polytechnic institute face charges of practicing caste discrimination against Manoj Kumar

Five faculty members of a government polytechnic inistitute at Manesar, in the Gurgaon district of Haryana, have been booked under charges of harrasment and mental torture against a staff member due to his caste, the police reported on October 3.

The accused Dhrampal, Dayanand, Ravin Ahuja, Zakir Husain and Mukesh Kumar were booked under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act at the Manesar police station based on a complaint filed by the institute's laboratory assistant, Manoj Kumar.

No arrests have been made so far.

"The accused were harassing me for a long time. I have been mentally tortured on several occasions," Kumar said in his complaint.

Kumar claimed the accused publicaly called him by his caste name several times to humiliate him.

Manesar Assistant Commissioner of Police, Dharamvir Singh, has been appointed to investigate the matter and notices are being issued to the complainant and the accused to join the investigation, a senior police officer told IANS.

"We are probing the allegation," the ACP said.

One of the accused said the complaint was motivated since there was an ongoing tiff between the five faculty members and Kumar over some other issue.