Bhubaneswar: The police have arrested the principal of a college in Odisha's Khurda district on charges of sexually harassing a woman lecturer of the institute.

The accused has been identified as Pradipta Das, the principal of Paramananda College at Bolgarh in Khurda.

Das had allegedly sought sexual favour from a newly-appointed lecturer of the Chemistry department . He had also sent lewd messages and made offensive videocalls to the victim, reports said.

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The victim’s father had lodged an FIR in this regard with Bolgarh police yesterday. On the basis of the complaint, the cops launched a probe into the incident and arrested the accused principal today. He was later produced in a local court, reports added.

Assistant Professor of GM University had been arrested over misconduct in July

It is worth mentioning here that an Assistant Professor of Gangadhar Meher (GM) University in Sambalpur had been arrested on charges of maintaining physical relationship with a girl student on false assurance of marriage in July this year.

The 20-year-old girl, a second-year integrated B.Ed student of GM University in Sambalpur, lodged a complaint with the police after the assistant professor ditched her.

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Taking the issue seriously, the Vice Chancellor (In-Charge) of the university placed the assistant professor under suspension with immediate effect.  

In another case, a girl student of FM (Autonomous) College in Balasore attempted self-immolation due to continuous harassment by a faculty member in July, 2025. The victim sustained 90 per cent burn injuries in the incident and she died while being treated at AIIMS-Bhubaneswar.  

The police had arrested the accused faculty member as well as the principal of the college in connection with the incident.