Kalakshetra row: Chennai court grants bail to Hari Padman

CHENNAI: The Metropolitan Magistrate Court, Saidapet granted bail to Hari Padman, a suspended faculty member of the Rukmini Devi College of Fine Arts under Kalakshetra Foundation, who was arrested on charges of sexual harassment.

When his bail plea came up for hearing before Justice AD Jagadish Chandira in the Madras High Court, the counsel representing Hari Padman submitted that the IX Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Saidapet had granted bail to the petitioner on June 3 and therefore, the counsel requested the court to allow him to withdraw his bail plea.

Since the Metropolitan Magistrate Court had already granted bail, the High Court accepted Padman's request and allowed him to withdraw the bail petition.

Earlier in March, students of the Kalakshetra Foundation had resorted to protests demanding the dismissal of four staff members including Hari Padman, who they accused of inappropriate behaviour and sexual harassment inside the campus.

Following a plaint from a former woman student of the college who had discontinued her studies in 2019, the All Women Police, Adyar booked Hari Padman under sections 354A, 509 of the IPC and Section 4 of the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Women Act and arrested Padman on April 3 and remanded to judicial custody.

However, Padman's bail plea was rejected by the Saidapet court and then he moved the High Court for bail.

As the High Court adjourned the hearing of bail plea, the accused Padman had withdrawn it and again he filed a fresh bail petition in the Madras High Court.