KOLKATA: National Women’s Commission (NCW) chairperson Rekha Sharma on Thursday called for professor Kanak Sarkar’s immediate sacking from Jadavpur University (JU).Sharma’s statements came after an NCW fact-finding team, earlier in the day, spoke to academics and students on campus as part of their ongoing inquiry against the teacher.Sarkar’s recent statements on Facebook extolling the values of “virginity” in women, and comparing a girl to a “sealed bottle”, have drawn near-universal condemnation both on and off campus, online as well as offline. First, students of the international relations (IR) department, where he teaches, boycotted his classes. On Wednesday, the university stopped him from teaching and barred his entry on campus pending the state women’s commission and JU’s internal complaints committee’s (ICC) inquiries against him. The NCW has welcomed the decision.“We have been informed that investigations (by the university) are going on,” Sharma told TOI. “The case should not be hushed up. Proper inquiry should be done, and if he is found guilty, the matter should go to police.” Sharma, earlier, had asked state DGP Virendra to investigate and take legal action against Sarkar. “We met a few girls on the JU campus, who complained that the professor had made sexual advances repeatedly in the past few years. He has abused his position,” she said.Sharma was to meet JU vicechancellor Suranjan Das on the issue on Friday, but had to cancel the meeting because Das will not be in Kolkata till January 20.“I had a visitor from NCW and she spoke at length with me on the issue,” said IR department head Om Prakash Mishra. “On the action taken, I explained to her that my role is limited to assigning classes. This has been revoked. We had a three-hour-long departmental teacher-student committee meeting on Wednesday. In this meeting, we documented the allegations that were being made against professor Sarkar.” According to sources, there were around 30 specific complaints made. The committee then handed over the recommendations to Mishra. “I sent my proposal to the VC which, in turn, was sent to the ICC,” he said.Some students spoke to the NCW official who visited the campus. “This came as a total surprise to us. So, we were not prepared. The few students who were present could narrate their ordeal. But it’s a small number. Over 30 complaints have been made to the ICC alone,” a student said.State women’s commission chairperson Leena Gangopadhyay said: “We had issued a notice to professor Sarkar to appear before the commission after we took suo motu cognizance of his derogatory remarks. A copy of this letter was also sent to the VC. Professor Sarkar responded to us today saying he will appear before us in a week.”

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