Bhubaneswar, 18 July

An Odisha government-run university in Sambalpur on Friday issued an advisory to all its teaching staff a day after the arrest of an assistant professor for "sexual exploitation" of a female student.

An assistant professor of GM University was arrested on Thursday for allegedly sexually exploiting a 20-year-old student of the varsity, police said. Following his arrest, the university suspended the assistant professor.

Susant Kumar Das, in-charge Vice Chancellor (VC) of GM university, said he has advised all teachers to treat the students as their brothers and sisters.

The head of departments and faculty members have been asked to counsel the students at individual-level and directly report to him in case of any kind of harassment of any student, Das said.

"The teachers have been asked to maintain professional, ethical and moral values at the highest level," he said.

The students of the university staged a protest inside the campus in Sambalpur during the day and also submitted a memorandum to the VC demanding a proper inquiry to identify other faculty members who might have engaged in such unethical practice, a protesting student said.

Later in the evening, the VC convened a meeting of the Internal Complaint Committee (ICC) of the university and issued necessary instructions to the members of the panel.