Infosys co-founder, 17 IISC faculty booked in SC/ST Act case
The complaint was filed by D Sanna Durgappa, a former faculty member of IISc who belongs to the tribal Bovi community
A case has been registered against Infosys co-founder S “Kris” Gopalakrishnan and 17 members of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act after a former faculty member alleged wrongful dismissal and caste-based discrimination, police said on Tuesday.
The case was registered on Monday at the Sadashiva Nagar police station based on the directions of the 71st city civil and session court (CCH). The complaint was filed by D Sanna Durgappa, a former faculty member of IISc who belongs to the tribal Bovi community.
Durgappa worked at IISc’s Centre for Sustainable Technologies before being terminated over allegations of sexual harassment. Police quoting his complaint said that he was accused of calling a married woman “beautiful”, which was deemed sexual harassment by the institute’s Sexual Harassment Complaints Committee (SHCC) in 2014. He alleged that the case was fabricated to target him due to his caste background.
“In his petition to the court in a private complaint, Durgappa argued that the SHCC violated Supreme Court guidelines by not including an NGO representative in the panel. He claimed that the Karnataka legislative assembly’s SC/ST Committee had investigated the matter in 2017 and found no evidence of sexual harassment. The committee concluded that the dismissal was unjust and that the allegations were discriminatory,” said a senior investigating officer.
Despite this finding, Durgappa in this petition alleged, his repeated efforts to seek reinstatement were ignored. He said that he met with the IISc administration on two occasions — once in May 2017 and again in October 2020 — to file a review petition but faced threats of police action instead. Claiming caste-based harassment and systemic mistreatment by the administration, Durgappa approached the 71st City Civil and Sessions Court last year, which directed the police to register an FIR and investigate the allegations.
The FIR names prominent IISc faculty members, including Govindan Rangarajan, Sridhar Warrier, Sandya Vishwswaraih, Hari K V S, Dasappa, Balaram P, Hemalata Mhishi, Chattopadyaya K, Pradeep D Sawkar, and Manoharan.. Kris Gopalakrishnan, a member of the IISc Board of Trustees, has also been listed among the accused.
There has been no official response from the IISc administration or Gopalakrishnan. However, former Infosys CFO Mohandas Pai on Tuesday expressed concern about the charges, calling for a fair investigation. “This is very wrong. The government should ensure that innocent people on governing boards are not wrongly charged like this. Everyone’s rights must be protected,” Pai said in a statement.
A case has been booked under sections 3(8) (false complaints against SC or ST person), 3(14) (denies a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe any customary rite of passage to a place of public resort or obstructs such member so as to prevent him from using or having access to a place of public resort), 3(1)(2) (acts with intent to cause injury, insult or annoyance ), 3(x) (intentionally insults or intimidates with intent to humiliate ), and 2(1) (giving false evidence that will lead to conviction of an SC/ST person), of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
Durgappa’s case has drawn parallels to another high-profile incident involving caste-based discrimination allegations at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bengaluru in December 2024. In this case, associate professor Gopal Das filed an FIR under the SC/ST Act against IIM Director Rishikesha T Krishnan and seven senior officials. Das alleged that he faced caste-based harassment and was denied opportunities due to his background.
The Directorate of Civil Rights Enforcement (DCRE), under Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), investigated the allegations at IIM and found evidence supporting the claims of discrimination and unfair treatment.
