AMU Professor Put under Suspension for Being Gay

An Aligarh Muslim University professor, who was shortly to retire, has been suspended on charges of being gay, reported Times of India.

Dr Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras, reader and chairman of Modern Indian Languages at AMU, was suspended after some students installed cameras to catch him having consensual sex with a rickshaw puller in his campus home and sent the video film to university officials, said report.

Dr Siras now says he won’t challenge his suspension and would voluntarily leave, said report.

Professor’s decision not to question his suspension came as a relief to AMU officials, who are more than interested to bury the ‘embarrassing episode’ as it could raise a serious issue of gay rights on the campus since the professor wasn’t accused of any wrongdoing or criminal action. Consensual sex with a same-sex partner isn’t a crime in itself.

“Siras was captured on camera having sex with a rickshaw-puller. It’s a scandal that no institution of repute can overlook. Therefore he was placed under suspension on February 9 by the order of the VC, Prof P K Abdul Azis,” AMU public relations officer Rahat Abrar was quoted as saying.

“Dr Siras lived in a house allotted to him in the medical colony on the AMU campus. On February 8, he was home in the company of a young rickshaw-puller from Jamalpur area of the town. Since the door was open, two reporters from a local TV channel barged into the house and filmed him and his companion. The video clippings were then sent to AMU authorities who were constrained to proceed against Siras,” he was quoted as saying.

AMU registrar Dr VK Abdul Jalil served a memo on Siras on February 9 under rule 403-C of the statute of the university after a prima facie case of ‘gross misconduct’’ was made out against him, said report.

However, Siras was quoted as saying: “Let them say what they want to. I am not going to offer any clarification. You don’t have to abuse back if someone abuses you. I am already on the verge of retirement and, therefore, would rather be gone than to stretch the issue.”

Report said that the university authorities feel that it ‘is the only respectable and sensible option under the unfortunate circumstances’.