Lucknow’s KGMU launches inquiry into police report claiming harassment and conversion pressure on campus

King George’s Medical University (KGMU) in Lucknow has decided to initiate an inquiry into a report by the Uttar Pradesh Police’s Special Task Force (STF) that raised allegations of staff members being harassed and, in some cases, being coerced to convert by their colleagues and seniors from the minority community.

The STF had launched an inquiry following claims about alleged religious conversion and “love jihad” that emerged last year. The Lucknow police had in January arrested Rameezuddin alias Rameez Malik, a junior resident in the university’s Department of Pathology, and a medical intern in two separate cases.

Rameezuddin, who was arrested in Lucknow on January 9, faces allegations of sexually exploiting and trying to convert two women. The intern faces allegations of sexually exploiting a nursing student on the false promise of marriage.

In its inquiry report recently submitted to the state government in August, the STF is learnt to have alleged misconduct, including physical and mental harassment of female junior residents, nursing staff and a contractual employee by male nursing staff, doctors and a head of department from the minority community.

The report claims to have found instances of harassment in four different departments of KGMU.

KGMU spokesperson Dr K K Singh told The Indian Express that the STF had not recommended criminal proceedings against those named in its report but had referred the matter for disciplinary action. The university received the report from the government on Thursday.

“We will place the report before the university’s executive council, after which a committee will be constituted to examine the allegations. The disciplinary committee will assess whether the allegations have merit. All the issues raised in the report will be examined,” Singh told The Indian Express.

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The government, in its letter, has directed KGMU authorities to initiate action against employees mentioned in the report in accordance with provisions of the KGMU Act, 2002, and the University’s statutes and submit an action-taken report. The executive council meeting is likely to be held next month.

According to the report, the STF inquiry was initiated following a complaint by a man who identified himself as president of the “UP Youth Association” and sought a probe into alleged religious conversions and what he described as “love jihad” cases on the university campus.

The report alleges that both cases in which a resident doctor and an intern were arrested were linked to a department where certain faculty members shielded other faculty members, resident doctors, students, nursing staff and employees from the minority community who were accused of misconduct. The report alleges that this allowed the physical and mental harassment of some women resident doctors, students, nursing staff and other employees to continue.

The report further alleges that when women employees objected to or spoke out against such conduct, some faculty members tried to silence them by threatening to damage their careers, label them mentally unstable or terminate their employment.

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The report further alleges that a nursing staff member who established a relationship with a colleague from a different faith was subjected to physical and mental harassment and pressured to convert.

The STF report also alleges that a 50-year-old employee of another department, who belongs to the minority community, harassed and stalked a 25-year-old woman working there as a contractual computer operator, and allegedly pressured her to convert and marry him.

According to the report, after the woman complained to the head of the department, a committee was constituted, but no action was allegedly taken against the employee. Instead, the report claims, her contract was terminated, leaving her without a job.

According to the report, a resident doctor in another department allegedly drew two fellow female resident doctors into relationships and blackmailed and pressured them to convert. The report further alleges that when the women complained verbally to the department, faculty members and the head of the department attempted to suppress the matter, and that the women were allegedly threatened with damage to their careers and failure in their examinations.

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According to the report, the family of a woman who had complained of alleged coercion to convert said the department head described her as a “psychopath” and defended the accused doctor. This allegedly left the family feeling defensive and pressured to consider a compromise, the report claims.

The report further accuses an additional professor, who had been given the additional responsibility of approving resident doctors’ leave applications by the HOD, of bias. The report alleges that residents seeking leave to celebrate festivals such as Chhath Puja or to attend their grandparents’ funerals faced insensitive remarks, while those from the minority community were granted leave to attend prayers, weddings or other personal engagements.