Students of Jadavpur University in Kolkata staged a protest on Tuesday demanding the expulsion of a professor who compared virgin women to “sealed bottles”, reported ANI. Kanak Chandra Sarkar is a professor at the university’s Department of International Relations.

“We want his [Sarkar’s] expulsion as he is influencing young minds [and] we don’t want misogynistic environment here,” ANI quoted the protestors as saying. The students alleged that he was a “repeat offender”.

“Are you willing to buy a broken seal while purchasing a bottle of cold drink or a packet of biscuits?” Sarkar said in a Facebook post on Sunday. “A girl is born sealed from birth until it is opened. A virgin girl means many things accompanied with values, culture, and sexual hygiene. To most boys virgin wife is like angel.” He later deleted the post but stood by his statement and said the constitution guaranteed him the freedom of speech and expression.

On Monday, a group of students submitted a complaint to the head of the Department of International Relations, Om Prakash Mishra, requesting him to bar Sarkar from taking classes, reported The Times of India.

“They [students] have claimed that he [Sarkar] made misogynistic and patriarchal comments which offended many students,” Mishra said. “As a department, we do not value regressive and medieval narrative on women and their role in the society. Such comments and views are unfortunate.”

Jadavpur University Vice-Chancellor Suranjan Das also condemned the professor’s comments, reported News 18. “I condemn the misogynistic and sexist comments made by Sarkar,” Das said. “I would like to assure that whatever departmental action we will take, it will be as per law.”

The National Commission for Women on Monday took suo motu cognisance of Sarkar’s statement and said it has written to the university’s vice-chancellor against the “objectionable statement and the misogynist lesson”.