Theatre personality Sudipto Chatterjee arrested on sexual assault charge

The well-known theatre personality and scholar Sudipto Chatterjee was arrested on October 18 after a student of his filed a complaint of sexual assault against him. This latest case of sexual harassment in the academic world came to the fore after the victim, a student of a private college where Sudipto taught, went public on social media with details of the sexual attack made on her.

The victim alleged that Sudipto, on the pretext of helping her out with a scene in a play, had invited her over to his residence, where he had sexually assaulted her. He had allegedly tried to molest her on another occasion but had backed off when she resisted. The victim filed an official complaint with the institution on October 14 and the very next day Sudipto resigned as a faculty member of the college.

The social media post by the victim giving details of what happened to her, sent shockwaves across the social and academic circles in the State. A protest was organised at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kolkata on October 19 by students and artistes condemning the incident.

“There have been allegations of sexual harassment in the theatre community of Kolkata in the past, but this is the first time that someone has been arrested. We hope this will set an example and serve as a deterrent to such incidents in the future,” said Panchali Kar, a theatre artiste and one of the organisers of the protest.

The victim accused Sudipto of being a “serial molester” who had for so long gotten away with his crimes “because the survivors couldn’t come out with their traumatic experiences,” she wrote. The incident had taken place in March, and it was not until October that the victim had managed to overcome her trauma to confront her attacker. Another woman also filed an FIR against Sudipto in a separate police station alleging sexual molestation. In her Facebook post she claimed that the first victim’s allegations were all true and urged people to “stand by her”.