Chennai Kalakshetra Ex-Professor Arrested For Alleged Sexual Assault

Shreejith Krishna, a former teaching faculty at the Kalakshetra Foundation in Chennai, was arrested on April 23 following a sexual assault complaint. Two former female students alleged that the 51-year-old renowned dancer had "used" them when they were on campus between 1996 and 2001. The women, now settled abroad, moved to the Madras High Court, after which the Chennai Police Commissioner was directed to act on the complaint. This comes just about a year after another Kalakshetra faculty, Hari Padman, was arrested after he was found guilty of sexual harassment in March 2023.

A former Kalakshetra student filed a complaint against Padman, that the assistant professor had sought sexual favours from her. After she declined, she was removed from important roles and ended up discontinuing the course. Over 200 students including men and women alleged sexual harassment, verbal abuse, and body shaming by Padman and three repertory artists.

Kalakshetra Sexual Harassment Controversy

Shreejith Krishna is an alumnus of the Kalakshetra Foundation before teaching there from 1989-2010. He had resigned to start a dance academy of his own. On April 23, police said that based on the directions of the Madras High Court, a preliminary inquiry was conducted into a complaint from two women alleging that the former faculty member had sexually assaulted them between 1995 and 2007.

Hari Padman Controversy: 2023

Following protests by the students of Kalakshetra Foundation, the Chennai Police filed a case in March 2023 against Hari Padman, a senior faculty member. 90 complaints of sexual abuse and harassment of students were received by the Chief of Tamil Nadu State Commission for Women following a five-hour inquiry on the campus. 

One of the students, AR Kumari, told NDTV that both the Director and Deputy Director weren't available and the principal could not give information. The college was shut down for some days and the students were asked to vacate the hostel within two days. The students then took to Chennai streets to protest while some others held silent protests under a banyan tree on campus.

The director of the institute, Revathi Ramachandran, arrived at the site of the protest and tried to convince the students to call off the strike. However, the students refused to give up. Students claimed that they weren’t satisfied with how the administration was handling the issue. They alleged that they had been denied a fair opportunity to express their grievances.

The students indulged in a protest a day after the Chairperson of the National Commission for Women (NCW), Rekha Sharma, visited the campus to inquire about the sexual harassment allegations. The students alleged they weren't allowed to speak to the NCW chairperson.

Beginning Of Controversy

The controversy began in December 2022, when an ex-director of Kalakshetra posted on Facebook that a senior faculty member had been "harassing and molesting students for over a decade." Initially, the institute took swift action as soon as the allegations surfaced on Facebook, following the Prevention of Sexual Harassment (PoSH) Act 2013. The internal complaints committee (ICC) took suo moto action and launched an investigation.

However, the internal complaints committee gave the teacher a clean chit within three months. The accused teacher was also felicitated on International Women's Day 2023. The committee also stated that the allegations were "mostly manufactured" and "aimed at maligning" the reputation of the institute.

It also remains unclear if the students were heard during the investigation by the internal complaint committee. A few students allege that they were informally coaxed into writing letters in support of the accused teacher. The institute issued a gag order that prevented the students and staff from discussing the issue. The Facebook post has been deleted since then.

Before the gag order, some students and faculty members revealed to The Print that sexual harassment by an influential senior faculty member had been going unchecked for years. Kalakshetra Foundation which was founded in 1936 by Rukmini Devi Arundale is one of India's finest and esteemed Bharatnatyam, Carnatic music, and traditional arts institutes.