A woman professor at a private university in Haryana who had expressed concerns about Right-wing activism on the campus has been booked for alleged sexual harassment of female students after she used a dating app as a teaching tool to explain gender issues.

The Haryana State Commission for Women got the police case registered against Sameena Dalwai, professor at the Jindal Global Law School of the O.P. Jindal Global University (JGU), Sonipat.

The development has left several academics and students worried about what they see as an increasing threat to academic freedom.

Dalwai had on September 23 taken the help of students to create a profile on the dating app Bumble with an imaginary name, hoping to analyse the responses received and their references to caste, class, sexuality and religion. However, some students circulated videos of the experiment on social media.

A male student from another class sent Dalwai an email saying his Bumble profile had been opened in Dalwai's class, which had breached his privacy.

When someone creates a Bumble profile, the profiles of other Bumble users from within a certain radius become accessible to them. The profiles contain limited information. If two users take an interest in each other they are free to exchange more information about themselves.

Dalwai apologised to the male student and explained the course of events to vice-chancellor C. Raj Kumar, university sources who wished to remain anonymous said.

The experiment was dropped.

In October, the university invited Achin Vanaik, a retired professor of international relations, to speak on "The history and politics of the Palestinian present" on November 1.

However, a faculty member sent an email to colleagues and university authorities opposing the scheduled talk and describing Hamas as a terrorist group.

Dalwai replied in an email that the university had created a safe space for all despite differences of opinion among the campus community.

"I hope we can continue this. Otherwise I hear shouts of 'Jai Sriram' on campus, I see right wing students and faculty doing their own events. I want to react but I keep quiet in favour of peace. It's fragile peace, but I am happy to have it," she wrote.

She also wrote of how "fake news of Hamas atrocities is created by Indian troll armies". This email was leaked on social media.

In the first week of November, the Haryana women’s commission took suo motu cognisance of the September 23 experiment, apparently from the social media videos. Commission chief Renu Bhatia visited the campus on November 7 and spoke to several students.

Dalwai said that even before talking to her, Bhatia held a news conference and accused her of compromising the privacy of students, particularly female students, by creating a fake profile on the dating app. The commission later summoned Dalwai but the professor said she could not make it and sent her lawyer instead.

The university issued a warning to Dalwai relating to both her Bumble experiment and her email, which it alleged had discriminated against students on the ground of religion.

On December 22, the commission filed the police case against Dalwai.

About 40 students of the university have expressed support for Dalwai on social media and described her as an exceptionally good teacher.

Anita Rampal, former dean of faculty (education) with Delhi University, criticised the JGU authorities for allowing the Haryana women’s commission to interfere in what should normally be an institutional matter.

"This amounts to academic betrayal and complete failure of the university to protect its own faculty and students, many of whom had given detailed testimonies in favour of Prof Dalwai," Rampal said.

"These incidents hamper academic freedom and integrity, and the trust between faculty members, students and the institution.... These preposterous charges of harassment will damage teachers' integrity and students' confidence in the institution."

The Telegraph contacted the university to find out why it had allowed the state women’s commission to intervene. Anjoo Mohan, who interacts with the media on the university's behalf, sent a reply defending the commission’s involvement.

“When a report on action-taken is sought from the University by the Commission, the University is duty-bound to do it,” the reply said.

“The action taken report constitutes our diligent efforts as a responsible and conscientious higher educational institution to comply with the Statutory objectives of the Haryana State Commission for Women.”