Key highlights:
- Two assistant professors arrested at National Sanskrit University, Tirupati after a 27‑year‑old B.Ed student from Odisha alleged sexual assault, harassment, and blackmail.
- Police invoked multiple BNS sections including sexual harassment, voyeurism, and insulting the modesty of a woman, and produced the accused before court after gathering evidence in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.
- Two assistant professors arrested by Tirupati police have been suspended from the university, while internal and external inquiries proceed amid growing debate over campus safety and implementation of UGC anti‑harassment norms.
Opening overview
Two assistant professors arrested at a central university in Tirupati have turned a campus‑level complaint into a national debate on how India’s higher education system deals with sexual harassment by faculty. The 27‑year‑old B.Ed student from Odisha, who joined National Sanskrit University in June 2025, has accused one professor of sexually assaulting her in his office and another of secretly photographing the act and later using the visuals to blackmail her with threats of social media exposure.
Two assistant professors arrested on December 9, 2025 now face serious charges under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, with the case file detailing allegations of physical abuse, intimidation, and sustained psychological pressure. The complaint reached the university’s anti‑sexual harassment committee and in‑charge Registrar after the student formally approached the institution on November 24, prompting the Registrar to file a police complaint on December 6. Two assistant professors arrested in Tirupati were taken into custody after a special team travelled to the student’s hometown in Odisha, recorded her statement, inspected locations linked to the alleged offence, and collected corroborative evidence.
A case of alleged sexual harassment has come to light at the #NationalSanskritUniversity in #AndhraPradesh's #Tirupati, after a first-year B.Ed Dalit student accused two assistant professors, Laxman Kumar and Shekhar Reddy, of sexually harassing her.
— Hate Detector 🔍 (@HateDetectors) December 10, 2025
The incident has sparked… pic.twitter.com/zETONY3WRt
The episode coincides with worrying national data on sexual violence: between 2014 and 2022, India recorded nearly 3 lakh rape cases, while the share of cases involving SC/ST survivors rose from just over 6 percent to more than 13 percent, highlighting the layered vulnerabilities many students carry into campuses that are not always structurally prepared to protect them.
Allegations, timeline and legal action
- Two assistant professors arrested after a complaint that described sexual assault in a faculty office, covert photography, and blackmail linked to threats of online publication of images.
- Investigators relied on the victim’s detailed statement, digital evidence, and physical inspection of key locations before moving to arrest the accused.
According to the FIR, the case began after the student alleged that assistant professor Dr. Lakshman Kumar misused his position, “lured” her into his office at National Sanskrit University, Tirupati, and sexually assaulted her there not long after she enrolled in the B.Ed programme in June 2025. During this alleged assault, a second assistant professor, identified as Dr. A. Shekhar Reddy, is said to have taken photographs and possibly videos from outside the office, material that was later weaponised to threaten the student with public exposure on social media if she refused to comply with demands or attempted to complain.
The student is reported to have endured sustained harassment for months before approaching the university’s internal committee and hostel authorities on November 24, 2025, detailing the sexual assault, the recording of images, and the blackmail that followed. Two assistant professors arrested in Tirupati came only after the in‑charge Registrar, Professor Rajanikant Shukla, lodged a formal complaint with Tirupati West police on December 6, which led to registration of a case under Section 75(1) of the BNS (sexual harassment), Section 77 (voyeurism and capturing images of a woman without consent), Section 79 (acts intended to insult the modesty of a woman), and Section 351(2) read with 3(5) for aggravated sexual assault.
A special team including women constables travelled to Odisha to record the victim’s statement under proper legal procedure and verify her account at the locations she identified, after which two assistant professors arrested on December 9 were produced in court and remanded, while investigators continued collecting digital and forensic evidence. Tirupati’s Deputy Superintendent of Police, M. Bhaktavatsalam, has publicly stated that strict action will be taken in all cases involving harassment of women and encouraged students to come forward with complaints, assuring confidentiality of identities during the process.
Two assistant professors arrested in the case have also been suspended from their posts by National Sanskrit University, which is running a parallel internal inquiry in line with regulatory requirements, although the primary accountability process is now in the criminal justice system.
Key BNS sections applied in the case
| Provision (BNS) | Nature of offence | Relevance in this case |
|---|---|---|
| Section 75(1) | Sexual harassment | Invoked for alleged exploitation and coercive sexual behaviour |
| Section 77 | Voyeurism, capturing images without consent | Tied to alleged photographing of the assault by the second professor |
| Section 79 | Insulting the modesty of a woman | Applied given threats to circulate images and continued harassment |
| Section 351(2) r/w 3(5) | Aggravated sexual assault with enhanced penalties | Used due to abuse of authority and serious nature of the allegations |
Campus harassment in numbers and policy framework
- Two assistant professors arrested at a central university fit into a broader national pattern of rising reports of sexual harassment in higher education institutions.
- Official crime data and regulatory frameworks show both an increase in reported offences and persistent gaps in implementation of safeguards.
The Tirupati case lands against a backdrop of rising campus harassment numbers. University Grants Commission (UGC) data presented previously showed that sexual harassment complaints on campuses rose markedly in the late 2010s, with more than a 50 percent jump in reported cases in one year, from under 120 to nearly 190 across universities and colleges combined. Two assistant professors arrested at National Sanskrit University, Tirupati, come at a time when many states are also reporting more formal complaints: in Odisha alone, 19 sexual harassment cases were recorded across government and private colleges and universities in 2024, including multiple cases where faculty were transferred, suspended, or terminated, and several where police complaints and FIRs were filed.
At the national level, the scale of gender‑based violence is stark. Analysis of National Crime Records Bureau figures shows that between 2014 and 2022, India registered roughly 299,520 rape cases, translating to an average of over 33,000 cases annually and a significant rise compared with the previous decade. Two assistant professors arrested in the Tirupati case are part of a wider picture in which the proportion of rape cases involving SC/ST survivors has more than doubled over the same period, indicating growing representation of historically marginalised communities among reported victims and underlining the compounded vulnerabilities students from such backgrounds often face when navigating power‑laden campus spaces.
In response to these realities, the UGC’s 2015 Regulations on the Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal of Sexual Harassment require every higher educational institution to set up an Internal Complaints Committee (ICC), ensure at least half its members are women, and include an external member experienced in gender issues. Two assistant professors arrested in Tirupati despite these formal structures raises questions about how effectively such committees function, how accessible they are to students, and whether complaint timelines prescribed by the regulations—such as completing inquiries within 90 days and implementing actions within 30 days—are being met in practice.
The regulations also empower the UGC to withhold grants or even withdraw recognition from institutions that fail to implement anti‑harassment norms, placing a formal compliance obligation on universities like National Sanskrit University that operate under the Ministry of Education.
Snapshot: sexual harassment cases in Odisha institutions (2024)
| Indicator | Official figure / detail |
|---|---|
| Total campus sexual harassment cases | 19 cases across colleges and universities in 2024 |
| Types of action taken | Amicable settlement, transfers, suspensions, termination, FIRs |
| Institutions with multiple reported cases | Includes major state universities and autonomous colleges |
Institutional response, politics and accountability
- Two assistant professors arrested at National Sanskrit University triggered internal inquiries, suspensions, and a wider political debate in Andhra Pradesh and beyond.
- The case is testing whether internal mechanisms such as anti‑sexual harassment committees can work in tandem with police investigations without diluting victim protection.
Following the complaint, National Sanskrit University constituted an internal committee on December 1, 2025 to examine the allegations, even as the Registrar’s complaint to police initiated the criminal case. Two assistant professors arrested in Tirupati were swiftly suspended from their academic posts once the police took them into custody, a step that serves both to prevent any interference with witnesses or evidence and to signal that the institution acknowledges the gravity of the accusations. The Vice‑Chancellor has reportedly indicated that while there might have been prior acquaintance between the student and one of the professors, this does not reduce the seriousness of allegations involving coercion, blackmail, or abuse of authority, which remain at the core of the case.
Politically, the incident has generated sharp reactions. Opposition figures in Andhra Pradesh have questioned whether the ruling establishment and education authorities have ensured robust, proactive safeguards in central and state‑run universities, particularly those that host students from disadvantaged socio‑economic backgrounds and other states like Odisha. Two assistant professors arrested over such serious allegations have become a rallying point for student groups and gender‑rights activists, who argue that many Internal Complaints Committees are either poorly resourced, insufficiently independent, or intimidating for complainants who fear academic retaliation, social stigma, or digital shaming. The Tirupati case therefore sits at the intersection of campus power hierarchies, inter‑state student migration, and the rapidly evolving role of digital tools in both committing and exposing harassment.
National Sanskrit University itself, established in 1962 and functioning as a central university focused on Sanskrit and allied disciplines, caters to thousands of students across undergraduate, postgraduate, and research programmes, including professional degrees like B.Ed. Two assistant professors arrested from such an institution has unsettled many students and parents who looked at central universities as relatively safer spaces with stricter oversight, and has amplified calls for regular third‑party audits of ICC functioning, gender‑sensitisation training for faculty, and transparent publication of anonymised annual harassment statistics by institutions.
Closing assessment
Two assistant professors arrested in connection with the Tirupati sexual assault case highlight the fault lines that appear when formal rules exist on paper but are not matched by consistent, accessible protection for students in everyday campus life. The alleged sequence in this case—sexual assault in a faculty office, clandestine recording of the act, and systematic blackmail through threats of online circulation—demonstrates how traditional abuses of authority are being fused with newer forms of digital intimidation that can trap victims in prolonged silence.
Two assistant professors arrested after the student finally approached the internal committee illustrates both the importance of institutional pathways for redress and the pressing need to ensure those pathways are trusted, swift, and safe for complainants. As NCRB data continues to show high and rising levels of sexual violence, particularly against marginalised communities, the burden on universities and regulators is not simply to react to cases but to prevent them through structural reforms, transparent accountability, and explicit zero‑tolerance policies that carry real consequences for perpetrators.
Two assistant professors arrested at a prominent central university should therefore not be seen as an isolated scandal, but as an urgent signal to re‑examine how faculty are recruited and monitored, how power disparities are addressed, and how students are empowered to speak without fear in institutions meant to be spaces of learning and trust.
