A sessions court in Bengaluru on Friday granted bail to a senior professor and former registrar of Bangalore University, who has been accused of stalking and sexually harassing a former employee.
Professor B C Mylarappa, 62, from the sociology department of Bangalore University, who was previously among the aspirants for the university vice-chancellor post, and a woman identified as Jaya S were named accused in a stalking and harassment case filed by a woman who had been employed in a social organisation he operated.
The court of the 71st additional city civil and sessions judge granted Mylarappa and Jaya bail on Friday after the police had briefly detained them for questioning. “The petition is hereby allowed,” the court noted.
The court had previously allowed the woman to assist the jurisdictional police, who had registered a First Information Report (FIR) on October 9, in arguments for bail.
According to the complaint filed by the woman, following her husband’s death by suicide in December 2024, Mylarappa had initially supported her with regard to a property dispute with her husband’s family. Later, he allegedly began harassing her and interfering in her personal and family matters.
When the woman tried to avoid the professor, he allegedly abused her, began stalking her and threatening her through a representative of a women’s organisation, she said in her complaint. She also alleged that the professor came to her residence and rang the doorbell for hours to force her out.
Incidentally, prior to the case being filed against him, Mylarappa had filed a case against the family members of the husband of the woman for allegedly spreading false information that his death by suicide had occurred as a result of an illicit relationship between the professor and the woman. The professor, who belongs to the Dalit community, had also levelled charges of caste atrocity against the relatives of the woman after they allegedly referred to his caste and abused him.
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The professor filed a private complaint in court in May, which was converted into an FIR, where he alleged that the woman’s brother had approached him in 2022 to find her a job on account of her facing matrimonial problems.
The woman’s relatives were granted anticipatory bail in May by a local court.