They demanded the immediate suspension of professor J P Shrivastava from his position and sought a proper investigation into the matter.

"The law and administration system of the University should be strengthened so that culprits are scared to harass any girl," DUSU president Amrita Bahari told Newsline.

Later in the evening, Amrita met DU Vice-Chancellor Deepak Pental and asked him to hasten the inquiry proceedings. "The V-C has assured that by Monday the inquiry committee will submit its report. If the report is delayed, we will shut down the Geology department and the V-C office," Amrita said.

Meanwhile, Shrivastava has accused the girl of putting "baseless" allegations against him. "The girl is doing it because I terminated her last month. She was a Chemistry student who had enrolled herself for PhD in Geology. For the past seven months she has not been working properly and so we decided to terminate her," he said. The girl, did her MSc from Allahabad, has been unavailable for comment.

On February 7, the girl had submitted a letter to the V-C complaining about "wrongful restraint, criminal breach of trust and harassment at work place".

She alleged that during her visit to the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in Mumbai with Shrivastava during September last year, the professor made sexual advances towards her.

She claimed Shrivastava apologised after she threatened to complain to the authorities.