Chg: Professor held for molesting tribal student

A 62-year-old professor of a government college in Bilaspur district has been arrested for allegedly molesting a 20-year-old tribal student in his cabin earlier this month, the police said today.

The accused Roop Chandra Agrawal is a professor of Sociology in the Government Agrasen College in Bilha near Bilaspur.

On a tip-off, police traced the accused to the residence of his relative in Shakti town in neighbouring Janjgir-Champa district last night and apprehended him, a local police official said.

Agrawal was absconding since August 8, after he was booked under section 354-A (sexual harassment) of the IPC and provisions of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act on the complaint of the student, he said.

The alleged incident had taken place on August 4 in the cabin of the professor in the college, the official said.

"The professor had asked the student to come to his cabin and touched her inappropriately while asking her to become his friend," the official said quoting the complaint.

The victim somehow managed to run away from the cabin, he said.