The Karnataka government has directed the police to take action against six officials of the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore, including its director, for allegedly discriminating against an associate professor based on caste, The Indian Express reported on Thursday.

The action came after an inquiry by the state Directorate of Civil Rights Enforcement found evidence of caste-based discrimination and denial of equal opportunity to Gopal Das by officials of the institute, including its director, Rishikesha T Krishnan, and dean (faculty) Dinesh Kumar.

Das, who belongs to a Scheduled Caste community and is an associate professor of marketing, joined the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore in 2018. In January, he complained to President Droupadi Murmu, during her visit to the institute, about alleged caste-based discrimination.

Subsequently, the president’s office directed the Directorate of Civil Rights Enforcement to look into the matter, after which an inquiry was initiated in March, according to The Indian Express.

On November 26, the directorate submitted a report to the state Social Welfare Department. In the report, Additional Director General of Police Arun Chakravarthy said that evidence indicated that Krishnan publicly disclosed Das’s caste through a mass email, leading to “allegations of humiliation”.

“Additionally, both Dr. Krishnan and Dr. Dinesh Kumar, Dean (Faculty), are accused of contributing to workplace discrimination by denying Dr Das equal opportunities,” The Indian Express quoted the report as saying.

The directorate of civil rights enforcement said that the institute “reportedly failed to comply with statutory norms by not establishing an institutional mechanism to address grievances of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe employees”.

Apart from Krishnan and Kumar, Das, in his complaint, also accused cardiologist Devi Prasad Shetty, who is the chairman of the board of governors at the institute, along with Sreelata Jonnalagedda, Rahul De, Ashish Mishra and Chetan Subramanian of such discrimination.

Among the seven persons accused, Shetty obtained a stay against the proceedings from the Karnataka High Court, according to The Indian Express.

Based on the report, the Social Welfare Department on December 9 directed Bengaluru Police Commissioner B Dayananda to initiate legal action against the other six officials under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act.

On its part, the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore rejected the allegations and said it had not received a copy of the report from the Directorate of Civil Rights Enforcement, The Indian Express reported.

It further claimed that Das raised allegations of discrimination against the institute “only when his application for promotion was put on hold due to complaints of harassment lodged by some doctoral students against him”.

The institute noted that it had a Diversity and Inclusion Cell and a Diversity and Inclusion Grievance Redressal Committee. The statement added: “The DIGRC [Diversity and Inclusion Grievance Redressal Committee] found Dr Das’s complaints of harassment and discrimination to be unfounded.”

The institute also said that evidence on the matter had been submitted to the Directorate of Civil Rights Enforcement. “However, based on news reports suggesting that the institute has been indicted, it appears that this evidence has not been considered by the DCRE,” it added.