Following sexual harassment complaints by two of his former students, Bharatanatyam dancer Sheejith Krishna has been arrested by the Tamil Nadu police. Krishna was a faculty member at Chennai’s Kalakshetra Foundation when the alleged incidents occurred between 1995 and 2007. The arrest comes after a preliminary enquiry was conducted based on directions from the Madras High Court. The 51-year-old dancer was arrested on April 22 and remanded to judicial custody.
The Kalakshetra Foundation was at the center of sexual harassment allegations last year, with students protesting against four teachers, including Krishna. The Chennai police arrested one of the accused, Hari Padman, in April 2023, and he has been out on bail since June. The institute suspended Padman and dismissed three other instructors.
Seven students had approached the Madras High Court last year seeking a safe learning environment and a redressal mechanism for complaints on campus. The court directed the Kalakshetra Foundation to produce profiles of members in the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) and to frame a new policy that includes parents and teachers.
An independent enquiry committee constituted by the Kalakshetra Foundation described Padman as a “delinquent employee” and recommended “major punishment” against him. The committee was led by retired Punjab and Haryana High Court Justice K Kannan and included former Tamil Nadu police chief Letika Saran and medical professional Shobha Varthaman.
Krishna’s arrest follows weeks of denial and an investigation by the Tamil Nadu government and the Kalakshetra board. The Kalakshetra administration had initially released a statement saying that its internal complaints committee found no truth in the allegations, but students began protesting, demanding the suspension of the accused teachers.
