HYDERABAD: Days after allegations of sexual harassment was levelled by a group of students against an assistant professor, the Symbiosis Law School, Hyderabad on Sunday said that it has suspended Srinivas Methuku, the faculty member.After receiving complaint from a group of eight girls, the institute constituted an internal complaints committee as per the University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines.“The ICC interacted with the victims who claimed that they felt uncomfortable by his actions. As an interim action, we suspended the assistant professor on October 15, 2018,” said Vidya Yeravdekar, principal director of Symbiosis International University.Repeated calls made to Methuku’s phone went unanswered. After TOI sent a text message to Methuku, the university’s spokesperson Vidya Yeravdekar called to say that the faculty member won’t comment until the conclusion of the ICC probe.The institute claims that two students have misrepresented the facts in the sexual harassment case to divert attention. The two students alleged that they were evicted by the administration from the hostel and the institute on October 26 for raising their voice against sexual misconduct by Methuku. However, officials claim that action was taken against them following disciplinary misconduct.“The two students are neither victims nor witnesses in the sexual harassment case. They were involved in repeated disciplinary violations over the last two-years. Due to less attendance, they were listed in the ‘term not granted/course not granted’ list on October 22 which triggered their anger,” said Yeravdekar, adding that the students incorrectly linked their disciplinary action with the #MeToo movement.She further added that the institute has also received a petition from fellow students seeking removal of the two students as they were causing tension within the campus during exams.According to a statement issued by the institute on Sunday, the two students were involved in misbehaviour with campus administrator, staff and security guards.“It is clarified that action against these two students has no relation to their reporting the instance of sexual harassment against an assistant professor ... It is important to note that this was orchestrated to divert the attention from the core issue of disciplinary misconduct by these two students and derive benefits of exemption from TNG/CNG,” read the statement issued by the registrar of the university.