Indian-origin professor in US accused of using his students as 'servants'

A prominent Indian-origin professor in the US has been accused of exploiting his students as servants and compelling them to do his personal work, an American daily has claimed.

Ashim Mitra, a longtime pharmacy professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, made his students tend his lawn, look after his dog and water the house plants, sometimes for weeks at a time when he and his wife were away, the Kansas City Star reported.

According to the paper, over Mitra's 24 years as a leader in the UMKC School of Pharmacy, the professor compelled his students to act as his personal servants, a charge dismissed by him.

They hauled equipment and bused tables at his social events, it said quoting nearly a dozen former students of Mitra.

Former Indian student Kamesh Kuchimanchi told the daily that he considered his life at UMKC "nothing more than modern slavery.

He alleged that Mitra exploited cultural kinship with students from India.

When Kuchimanchi once told Mitra he wouldn't be a servant, he threatened to kick me out of the university and force me to lose my visa and lose everything. That was his ammo. Either fall in line or you would be thrown out. You didn't want to be in that situation where you have to go back home empty-handed."
In a statement to the daily through his attorney, Mitra said, Over the years, I have invited graduate students to my home where they have done work related to their courses of study, and at times eaten meals prepared by my wife. I have not required anyone to perform chores unrelated to their studies."