Kolkata, May 30 (IANS) Visva Bharati University Vice-chancellor Sushanta Datta Gupta, who is accused of “sexual harassment”, has not been awarded Padma Shri, the central Ministry of Home Affairs said in an RTI reply.
“Prof Sushanta Datta Gupta has not been awarded with Padma Shri. No communication was sent to Prof Datta Gupta to receive the Padma award by any official of the Ministry of Home Affairs,” reads the reply signed by Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) Shyamala Mohan.
The Right to Information query was made by poet Nilanjan Banerjee.
The investiture ceremony for Padma awardees was held March 31 and April 26.
The announcement of the award to Datta Gupta in the field of Science and Engineering had drawn sharp criticism from several quarters.
National Commission for Women chairperson Mamta Sharma and West Bengal Commission for Women chairperson Sunanda Mukherjee wrote to the prime minister seeking revocation of the award.
As the then director of the Satyendra Nath Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Datta Gupta was accused of sexually harassing a female scientist in 2005. Datta Gupta, however, repeatedly denied the charge.