By Sandeep Verma 
Lucknow, May 16: An audio clip. That is what started all of this. By the time it stopped circulating on social media, a professor was in police custody, students were raising slogans outside a police station in the middle of exam season, and one of Uttar Pradesh’s oldest universities was scrambling to explain how it had come to this.
The man at the centre of it is Dr. Paramjeet Singh, an assistant professor in the Department of Zoology at Lucknow University. He was taken into custody by Uttar Pradesh Police on Saturday after a recording allegedly of a phone conversation between him and a female student began spreading on social media late Thursday night and had, by Friday morning, reached the kind of audience that makes institutional inaction impossible.
The student made that recording. She brought it to the administration. And then she waited to see what would happen.
The Recording And What It Contains
The audio, which has since been widely shared and reported upon, is difficult to listen to ot because of its production quality, but because of what is being said.
In the clip, a voice purportedly belonging to Dr. Singh is heard repeatedly pressuring a female student to meet him despite her clear refusals, at one point saying, “Darling, koi bhi support chahiye toh batana, tumhare liye sab kuch open hai.” The tone is familiar in a way that is unsettling. Casual. Entitled. As if the conversation is entirely normal.
It gets worse. Further into the clip, the voice says, “Maine tumhare liye 2 paper out kar liye hain, tum bas milne aa jao” an apparent admission that two examination question papers had been leaked, offered as a transaction in exchange for the student agreeing to visit him.
After the call ends, the student can be heard saying the professor had been forcefully trying to hand her exam papers so she would come to his office and assault her again.
That word again is what makes this worse than it already looks. It suggests this was not an isolated conversation. It suggests history.
The University Moves. Eventually.
A university official confirmed that statements were recorded from the accused teacher, the student, and some other students in the proctor’s office on Friday, with the inquiry being taken forward before any decision would be made.
The formal action followed after the student provided evidence of inappropriate behaviour and illegal leaking of question papers to the university administration. That phrasing matters. The evidence came from her. She had to bring it. The institution did not find it on its own.
The timeline is worth sitting with for a moment. Clip surfaces Thursday night. Statements recorded Friday. Professor in custody by Saturday. That is relatively fast for a university system not known for speed. But the uncomfortable question underneath all of it is whether any of this would have happened without the clip going viral. Whether a complaint alone, without the public pressure of a recording spreading across X and WhatsApp, would have produced the same outcome.
It probably would not have.
Lucknow Police confirmed on X that the professor had been taken into custody and that interrogation was underway, adding that a case was being registered under relevant sections at Hasanganj Police Station based on a written complaint from the Controller of Examinations, Lucknow University.
What The FIR Actually Says
The police complaint recorded at Hasanganj Police Station states that on May 15, a written complaint was submitted by the Controller of Examinations, Lucknow University, alleging that Dr. Paramjit Singh son of Shri Amar Pal Singh, a resident of Ratanpur Khurd, District Bijnor had engaged in obscene conversations with a female student and offered her inducements for undue favours.
The investigation has been assigned to the Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Mahanagar. ACP-level oversight signals the administration is not treating this as a minor matter, at least publicly. Whether that holds through the investigation is a different question.
Two criminal threads run through the case simultaneously the sexual harassment allegations and the question paper leak. In Uttar Pradesh, examination fraud carries serious legal consequences under state law, and if the paper leak allegation is substantiated, the charges against the professor could go well beyond what the harassment complaint alone would attract.
He Denies It
Speaking to PTI by phone, Paramjeet Singh flatly rejected the allegations, saying he was being “targeted and trapped in this matter because of internal politics within the university and among students.”
He has that right to deny, to defend himself, to have the process play out. But the existence of an audio recording makes the “internal politics” defence a hard sell, particularly since there is no indication, as of reporting, that he has disputed the recording’s authenticity or offered any credible alternative account of what is heard in it.
Officials confirmed the investigation is focusing on both the alleged inappropriate conduct and the claims related to examination paper leaks.
Students Were Not Waiting For The Administration To Decide
While the university recorded statements and the police moved to register an FIR, students on campus were not quietly waiting.
The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) Lucknow University Unit issued a sharp statement condemning what it called the “highly inappropriate, obscene, and derogatory” phone conversation by Paramjeet Singh with a female student of the Faculty of Science.
ABVP alleged the recording showed the professor making indecent remarks, pressuring the student to come to his private cabin, demanding sexual favours, and boasting about his ability to leak examination question papers. The organisation added that the student was facing severe mental trauma and felt deeply unsafe on her own campus.
ABVP Lucknow University Unit President Jai Srivastava said: “Tarnishing the sacred tradition of Guru and disciple in such a prestigious institution is deeply unfortunate and entirely unforgivable. ABVP demands the immediate dismissal and prompt arrest of teacher Paramjeet Singh.”
Videos from outside the police station showed protesters raising slogans following the professor’s detention. The protests appeared to draw students beyond ABVP’s own membership. That is relevant. When institutional anger spills past factional lines, it usually means the incident has touched something broader.
What This Is Really About
Sexual harassment complaints against faculty in Indian universities are not rare. What is rare is for them to result in immediate police custody within 48 hours of a complaint being filed. Usually the process is slower, quieter, and more forgiving of the accused particularly if the accused holds a permanent position and the complainant is a student with years of assessment left ahead of her.
The Internal Complaints Committee mechanism under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2013 exists for exactly this kind of situation. Whether Lucknow University’s ICC was formally activated before the police complaint was filed, or whether the administration moved directly in response to public pressure from the viral clip, has not been clearly established in available reporting. That gap in the institutional process is worth scrutiny.
The paper leak angle is, in some ways, even more troubling from a systemic perspective. A question paper does not leak itself. If the allegations are true, it means someone inside the university’s academic structure had both the access and the willingness to compromise examinations that thousands of students depend on for their futures. The security of Lucknow University’s examination processes is now, fairly or not, a live question.
For Now
The professor remains in custody. Interrogation is ongoing. The ACP Mahanagar is leading the investigation. The university has said it will treat conduct that tarnishes its image with the utmost gravity which is precisely the kind of statement that means everything or nothing, depending entirely on what follows it.
The student is still on campus. Still, reportedly, feeling unsafe.
She made the recording. She brought the evidence. She held on long enough for the system to respond. Whether the system holds up its end of that through charges, through a fair inquiry, through actual institutional change is the part of this story that has not been written yet.
Stay ahead with Hindustan Herald — bringing you trusted news, sharp analysis, and stories that matter across Politics, Business, Technology, Sports, Entertainment, Lifestyle, and more.
Connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, YouTube, and join our Telegram community @hindustanherald for real-time updates.
Regional journalist bringing grassroots perspectives and stories from towns and cities across India.
- Sandeep Verma
- Sandeep Verma
- Sandeep Verma
- Sandeep Verma
