Kasaragod: The Central University of Kerala's first-year MA English students, who joined the course in September, have accused an assistant professor of sexual harassment, using poetry class as a licence to engage in crude sex talk and reducing women to sex objects.

The students said they decided to lodge a formal complaint against Dr Efthikar Ahamed B when he crossed "all boundaries" and allegedly felt up a semi-conscious female student in the classroom and also at the university's health centre on November 13. The students and the university's female medical officer accused him of being drunk on that day.

Thirty-three of the 41 students of the batch have signed a seven-page complaint in which they have listed 31 alleged instances of Efthikar Ahamed's misconduct in the classroom and on campus and given to the university's Internal Complaints Committee (ICC).

When contacted, Vice-Chancellor in-charge Prof K C Baiju said he would comment after the ICC submitted its report. "I have to reserve my comments because the Internal Complaints Committee is inquiring into it." He also refused to answer if Efthikar Ahamed has been suspended pending inquiry.

However, on November 16, a day after the students submitted their complaint, the Head of the Department of English and Comparative Literature Dr Asha S asked Efthikar Ahamed to stay away from students until further notice, but did not suspend him or restrict his access to the department.

Her note to Efthikar Ahamed said: "In the light of certain complaints received from some students, the Vice-Chancellor has directed me to adopt necessary measures to ensure the safety of students. Thereupon, I am requesting you to kindly stay away from the responsibilities of teaching, evaluating, and mentoring until further notice."

Efthikar Ahamed posted Asha's message to him on a WhatsApp group of English Language Teaching, an elective course he offered, with his own message: "But guys and girls, if the order is altered, be ready for the visit to Periye HSS (Higher Secondary School) on 28th Tuesday. I've already arranged it".

The student community is appalled. The National Students Union of India (NSUI), affiliated with the Congress, said it is "deeply troubling to hear that the university is not forwarding the case of the state police. We highly doubt the efficiency of the ICC".

The Students' Federation of India (SFI), affiliated with the ruling CPM, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the Ambedkar Students' Association (ASA), the Muslim Students' Federation of the IUML, Fraternity Movement, the students' wing of Welfare Party of India, and NSUI have released statements demanding Efthikar Ahamed's termination from service. Fraternity Movement said the university's Anti-Sexual Harassment Cell SPARSH was ineffective.

Despite being under investigation and asked to refrain from departmental duties, Efthikar Ahamed continues to be seen in the department, engaging with students, said 16 research scholars who joined the department this year. They are scholars of all six faculty members of the department, including Efthikar Ahamed. "We strongly urge for his suspension until appropriate actions are taken to ensure a safe and respectful environment for all," they said in a statement.

The complaint
On November 13, a female student collapsed while writing her midterm internal examination on Efthikar Ahamed's paper. Her blood sugar levels had dropped. Ahamed's PhD scholar, who was invigilating, called him. Efthikar came with Shilpa, an office staff.

On finding the student unconscious, Efthikar constantly tried to wake her up by patting her shoulders and trying to pick her up by the arms, said the complaint. He splashed water on her face and rubbed her face all over, it said. "The first time, she retaliated indicating discomfort," the complaint said.

When she was being taken to the university's health centre, the complaint alleged, Efthikar Ahamed touched the girl repeatedly and tried holding her hands and legs while she continuously rejected his advances even in a state of semi-consciousness. On reaching the health centre, he touched her shoulders inappropriately forcing the student to physically squirm which was noticed by the doctor at the health centre, it said.

When contacted, the female medical officer said she found Efthikar Ahamed conduct inappropriate. "I was in the OPD (outpatient department) when the student was admitted to the observation room. When I came, I saw Efthikar Ahamed improperly touching the student," she told Onmanorama. "The student recoiled and tried to push him away. But she was tired," the doctor said. "I was frozen and did not know what to do," she said.

The doctor said when she approached patients, the caregivers usually stepped back to give her space. "He did not. So I had to ask him to give me space. But he took only one step back. In the congested room, he was standing right behind me. He was reeking of alcohol," she said.

As the health centre's nurse was on leave, the doctor said she did not want to leave the student with her male teacher and so asked her to go to the District Hospital. Around 4.30 pm, the student returned from the hospital and came to the university's health centre, as advised by the medical officer. "The student had respiratory trouble and was upset and crying. I checked the reports from the hospital and they were normal," the doctor said.

When she consoled the student, she broke down and reportedly said could not carry on as normal and asked for Dr Asha, the Head of the Department (HoD). "When the HoD came, the student unloaded her burden. That's when I came to know that she was being targetted by him since she joined the university," the doctor said. "After she shared everything, her breathing became normal," she said. Asha, who is an associate professor in the Department, asked the student to give her complaint in writing.

'Sex talk under the garb of poetry'
The experience of the female student was the last straw for her classmates. On November 15, the very next day, they filed a detailed complaint against Efthikar Ahamed, a popular talking head on news channels, and often invited to schools and colleges as motivational speaker.

The students alleged: "He indulged in major conversations about sex, sexual pleasure, and other forms of pleasure, under the garb of interpreting poetry and literature." He designed the course.
They said his class was unsafe for female students because he often reduced women to sexual objects".

They listed out some of his alleged statements and antics in classrooms from September 7 to November 14. "Oral sex is the best form of communication."
"Do you know why the bus conductor is the happiest on a bus? Because, he gets to 'touch' a lot of people (women)".

"In one of those classes, while explaining ‘cultural differences’, he asked one of our classmates if she would let him lick all over her, as was prevalent in ‘German high society’. While discussing the poem 'Preface to Canterbury Tales’, he went around the class with his palms open, saying that he was 'looking for someone who has a big forehead'. He later explained that in medieval England, a huge forehead was symbol for 'lustful women with sexual desires'.

"While discussing the poem, 'To His Coy Mistress', he physically gestured how penetration is described in the poem while ignoring the context of the poem," the students said. The gesture was made while specifically looking at the female students, they said in the complaint. "He explained how seduction/temptation works by stating he would offer two sarees to one of our classmates to get her to his room, and she would agree but would demand three," the complaint said.

"Recently, in his class, he had compared the passion of the poet to the fetish of smelling underwear. Explaining it further by enacting the same very act," it said. "He often gets extremely close to female students while talking outside of classrooms, like whispering in their ears, or going near them and sitting on their desks. This habit has made many students in our class uncomfortable," they said.

In his recent English Language Teaching class, he remarked that teaching is like the act of "sex making", students said. "You need to keep changing positions and techniques to not feel bored of it," the complaint said, reportedly quoting him.

'Fake complaint, taking my class out of context'
When contacted, Efthikar Ahamed said the allegation of him sexually touching the unconscious student was fake and orchestrated by the female medical doctor. He said he was only trying to revive the girl by splashing water on her face. "My PhD student accompanied us to the health centre and she is an eyewitness. She too has rejected the allegations," he said.

Efthikar Ahamed said he has given his statement to the ICC. "There is a female lawyer in the ICC. She told me, 'Sir, you are lucky. The places where the student said you touched do not have any sexual organs'," he said quoting the legal counsel. 

In his statement to ICC, which he shared in WhatsApp groups, he said: "The biggest lie was that I was drunk. Students and staff interacted with me from 9.30 am till the start of the exam, not a single person had such a complaint."

He told Onmanorama that there were 22 poems in the course of which only four or five were explicitly erotic. "What is said in the class cannot be decontextualised and held against me. Can we take an anatomy class without mentioning body parts?" he said. He admitted to citing the example of a bus conductor but said it was in the context of "cultural nuances".

He said Dr Asha became the head of the department in November and till then the post was held by Prof Joseph Koyippally Joseph. "If there was any discomfort, I am very free in class, they could have told me. Or they could have told Prof Joseph. There is a mentor for every 10 students. They could have told their mentor. On top of that, the department has a complaint box. They did not drop any complaint there," he said. Efthikar Ahamed said he was friendly with students and that is now held against him.

Alumni come out in support of students
Onmanorama contacted several former students of the department and almost all of them said they were not surprised by the complaint against Efthikar Ahamed. "His classes were always peppered with sexually explicit content. So I am not surprised by the complaint filed by the first-year students of the present batch," said a female student of the 2016-2018 batch of the same department. She had attended public functions with Efthikar Ahamed. "I dealt with him tactfully and avoided coordinating with him during events," she said.

In their class of 26 students, three were male students. "Almost all of us stood up to him when he dished out sexual content and spoke without political correctness," she said. But Efthikar Ahamed purposefully failed six students, she said. "It is not possible for them to fail in poetry. Four of them are well-read. They were clearly targetted," she said.

The batch wrote to the then Vice-Chancellor Prof G Gopa Kumar demanding re-examination, and valuation by a different faculty member and action against Efthikar Ahamed. "The exam was held again but he did not face any disciplinary action," said the former student, who is now doing PhD in a premier institute.

When Onmanorama asked a senior faculty member about complaints against Efthikar Ahamed, they feigned ignorance. It takes a lot of courage and conviction for students to report teachers because 60% of the marks are internal as part of continuous assessment, said another former student of the 2020-2022 batch. "That's the power dynamics. For this very reason, the ICC should discount the statement of his PhD scholar who gave a favourable statement at the hearing," she said.

Another former student, who did not reveal her batch, said Efthikar Ahamed would wriggle out of the situation by citing literal meaning, connotative meaning, and denotative meaning. "But it is not only about the content of the poetry. His facial expression and gestures while teaching poetry make some students uncomfortable; some find them very weird," she said.

A former student of the department anonymously ran a Google form survey among alumni to understand whether they faced harassment from Efthikar Ahamed. Twenty-three students responded to the unofficial survey. Around 85% of them said they personally experienced inappropriate behaviour from the assistant professor, and 100% of them said his conduct in the classroom was unethical and inappropriate. The participants were from four batches -- 2016-2018, 2019-2021, 2020-2022, and 2021-2023.

'Do not post him in women's college'
Assistant Professor Efthikar Ahamed has a teaching experience of 18 years. In 2011, he was a faculty member of Krishna Menon Memorial Government Women's College in Kannur. Early in that year, pandemonium broke out on the campus over his alleged relationship with a student.

The Deputy Director of Collegiate Education, Kozhikode, conducted an inquiry into whether he had a relationship with a female student beyond acceptable boundaries; whether there was any truth in the allegation that he used to telephone students at home and threaten them; and what the repercussions caused by the relationship between Efthikar and the student on the campus. The student in question told the inquiry commission that her relationship with him was not out of line and she would continue to engage with him the same way as before.

The commission concluded that his relationship did vitiate the ambiance of the college and also in the locality. "So the teacher and the student continuing in the college during the same period is against public interest," it said in the recommendation, seen by Onmanorama.

In the recommendations to the Director of Collegiate Education, the Deputy Director recommended on March 19, 2011, that Efthikar Ahamed should be immediately transferred to another college and restore harmony on the campus; the teacher damaged the reputation of the college and so he should be given a stringent warning and handed down exemplary punishment; and he should not be posted in Kannur Women's College or any other women's college. He was immediately transferred to a college in Kasaragod.

When asked about the incident, he said he took a transfer from the women's college and the whole issue stemmed from a dispute with SFI over conducting a National Service Scheme (NSS) camp. "After the incident, I went to a college in Kasaragod and from there, I returned to Government Brennen College, and from there I got a transfer back to the Women's College after two years," he said.

Fooled newspapers with doctored photograph
In 2015, several newspapers in Kannur cut a sorry figure after they published a photograph of Efthikar Ahamed, who was then with the Kannur women's college, receiving a 'Research Author's Award' from actor Amitabh Bachchan. The report said the award was instituted by Anu Books in Meerut.

The newspapers had to run a corrigendum the next day saying they were deceived by the assistant professor who gave them the doctored photograph and the report and they published it in trust.

The photograph originally was of Bachchan giving the Nandi Award to Telugu actor Mahesh Babu in 2013. He allegedly replaced Mahesh Babu's face with his, said the corrigendum.