An inquiry by the Karnataka government has indicted IIM Bangalore director Rishikesha T. Krishnan, dean Dinesh Kumar and four faculty members in a case of caste-based discrimination lodged by a Dalit teacher.

Earlier this year, Gopal Das, an associate professor of marketing, had written to President Droupadi Murmu about harassment by senior faculty members over his caste identity and denial of promotion. The Directorate of Civil Rights Enforcement (DCRE) of the state government probed the matter.

According to the complaints, Das was forced to withdraw elective courses also. He has alleged that there was no cell on the campus to deal with issues faced by Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribe students.

The DCRE has concluded that Das had to face continuous harassment as the institute disclosed his caste in mass emails. In a letter to the state police department on December 9, 2024, social welfare department commissioner Rakesh Kumar Krishna Murthy requested the filing of an FIR against the director, the dean and four other faculty members in this case.

The letter said the probe has confirmed “deliberate publicising and revelation of the caste of the petitioner through mass emails by Dr Rishikesha T. Krishnan, director, IIM-B”. It further said there has been “denial of equal opportunity to the petitioner in the workplace environment by Krishnan and Dinesh Kumar, dean, IIM-B, and non-conformity to the statutory need to establish the institutional mechanism to address the grievancesof the SCs and STs by IIMBangalore”.

Das joined IIM Bangalore in April 2018 through merit in the general category.

IIM-B spokesperson Kavitha Kumar said: “Das’s allegations of discrimination... arose only when his application for promotion was put on hold because of complaints of harassment lodged by some doctoral students against him. An enquiry conducted by IIMB... with the committee including a reputed academic from the SC category from an eminent institution, found that the students’ complaints were justified.”