Infosys co-founder Senapathy Kris Gopalakrishnan, former IISc Director Balaram and 16 others were named in a case under the Prevention of SC/ST Atrocities Act.
What Is The Case?
The complainant Durgappa, who belongs to the tribal Bovi community, was a faculty member at the Centre for Sustainable Technology at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc). He claimed that in 2014, he was falsely implicated in a honey trap case and subsequently dismissed from service. He further alleged that he was subjected to casteist abuse and threats.
Kris Gopalakrishnan also serves as a member of the IISc Board of Trustees.
An FIR in the decade-old case was filed earlier this week on the direction of the 71st city Civil and Session Court, Bengaluru.
What Are The Charges?
After PhD in Zoology, the complainant got appointed as lecturer in 2008. He alleged that he was first accused in a "fictitious financial matter" in 2014, following which he asked the institute director to fire him. To exact revenge, he claimed he was honey trapped and later dismissed on sexual harassment charges for calling a woman "beautiful. The decision was arrived at without an NGO representative on the Sexual Harassment Complaints Committee. A later investigation by a SC/ST Karnataka Legislative Assembly committee revealed no sexual harassment in 2017, adding that Durgappa was singled out since he belongs to the Dalit community.
Requests to be reinstated in 2017 and 2020 went unheard and were later met with threats of police action.
The complaint further stated that the IISc director had not fired anyone but the complainant despite the fact that there are almost thirty sexual harassment accusations against IISc teachers.
Durgappa also alleged that the IISc Director also allotted no money for research by SC/ST faculty between 1970 and 2024, adding that anyone who inquires about Scheduled Caste Sub Plan (SCSP) and Tribal Sub Plan (TSP) funds is threatened. No SC/ST faculty members are hired and the funds are used for international travels, he alleged.
The complainant brought a report about caste discrimination, harassment, and atrocities to the attention of the Commissioner of Police, but the Deputy Commissioner of Police did nothing about it, the complaint states.
Further, when the matter was in the Karnataka High Court, the complainant claimed to have been threatened by the advocates representing IISc. The complaint also said that despite the Assembly ordering his reinstatement, the same has not been implemented by the institute director, rendering Durgappa jobless for 10 years. He added that despite filing around 5,000 complaints with various agencies and departments, he awaits action.
What Is Prevention Of SC/ST Atrocities Act?
The Act seeks to prevent offences of atrocities against the members of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, provide for Special Courts for the trial of such offences and for the relief and rehabilitation of the victims of such offences and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
These include offences like forcing a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe to drink or eat any inedible or obnoxious substance, causing injury or insult, forcibly removing clothes of a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe, wrongfully occupying or cultivating land, restraining them from voting, and assaulting any woman, among others.
The Act defines fines and jail terms for the above offences.
Who is Kris Gopalakrishnan?
Mr Gopalakrishnan is the Chairman of Axilor Ventures, an accelerator that helps start-ups during the early stage of their business journey. Kris served as the vice chairman of Infosys from 2011 to 2014 and the chief executive officer and managing director of Infosys from 2007 to 2011.
Recognised as a global business and technology thought leader, he was voted the top CEO (IT Services category) in Institutional Investor's inaugural ranking of Asia's Top Executives and selected as one of the winners of the second Asian Corporate Director Recognition Awards by Corporate Governance Asia in 2011. He was elected president of India's apex industry chamber Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for 2013-14 and served as one of the co-chairs of the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2014.
He was also selected to Thinkers 50, an elite list of global business thinkers, in 2009. Mr Gopalakrishnan invests in promoting research on brain sciences, aging related disorders as well as investing in start-ups and start-up ecosystem. His family philanthropy is Pratiksha Trust and investment arm is Pratithi.
In 2011, the Centre awarded Mr Gopalakrishnan the Padma Bhushan, the country's third-highest civilian honor.
As per the Hurun India Rich List 2024, Mr Gopalakrishnan, with a net worth of Rs 38,500 crore surpassed the net worth of Narayana and Sudha Murty, pegged at Rs 36,600 crore.
Mr. Gopalakrishnan holds master's degrees in physics and computer science from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. Kris is a Fellow of Indian National Academy of Engineers (INAE) and an Honorary Fellow of Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers (IETE) of India.
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