Angomcha Bimol Akoijam
Introduction
Angomcha Bimol Akoijam is an Indian politician and academic — the Congress Party’s member of Parliament from Inner Manipur and, until October 2026, a professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University’s Centre for the Study of Social Systems — who was dismissed from JNU’s service with immediate effect after a university internal committee found sexual harassment complaints against him by eleven female students established. The dismissal order, dated October 9, 2026, and signed by Vice-Chancellor Santishree D. Pandit, imposed what the university described as the “major punishment” recommended by its Internal Committee, making Akoijam one of the highest-profile figures in Indian public life to lose a university post over a harassment inquiry while still holding national elected office. He denies the allegations and has called the case against him politically motivated.
Background Information
Akoijam was elected to the Lok Sabha — India’s lower house of Parliament — from Manipur’s Inner Manipur constituency in the 2024 general elections on a Congress ticket, while retaining his professorship at JNU in New Delhi. The complaints that ended his university career came from his own students: according to the coverage, at least eleven female students filed sexual harassment complaints against him with the university’s Internal Committee in May 2026. The complaints alleged that Akoijam invited students to his campus residence under the pretext of meetings or gatherings and attempted to sexually harass them, and that he made obscene and inappropriate remarks in class. The matter drew wider campus concern as senior students came forward with similar allegations. For four months, the case sat with the committee — a delay that itself became part of the story.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Dismissed after an internal-committee inquiry; allegations denied. The Internal Committee’s findings led to dismissal from university service, which is an institutional disciplinary outcome, not a criminal conviction. No criminal prosecution arising from the complaints appears in the sources reviewed for this page, and Akoijam denies the allegations; the descriptions below are the complaints and findings as reported.
The pressure on JNU to act turned public in September 2026, when the student organization Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad staged a protest at the university demanding action over the complaints, which it said had been filed by eleven women students roughly four months earlier. The ABVP questioned the delay in handling the complaints and demanded a fair, independent and time-bound inquiry, along with transparency and freedom from political influence. It also questioned what it described as the silence of the Congress party, its student wing NSUI, and Left student organizations over the allegations — an implicit challenge to the MP’s own party.
The university’s answer came on October 9. The dismissal order stated that the Internal Committee had conducted an inquiry into the allegations and recommended major punishment under the applicable service rules. “Upon following the due process and considering all available facts and as per the report of the Internal Committee, the punishment of dismissal from the services of the university is hereby imposed,” the order signed by Vice-Chancellor Pandit said. The order cited the relevant service rules and Rule 11(ix) of the Central Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules — the provision under which dismissal ordinarily disqualifies the person from future government employment. Akoijam, the sitting MP from Inner Manipur, had no immediate public reaction to the order in the initial coverage.
Public Reaction and Consequences
The dismissal of a sitting parliamentarian from his professorship landed at the intersection of campus politics and national party politics. Akoijam had already rejected the allegations before the order issued, accusing what he described as “racist schemers” of trying to damage his reputation through “unverified allegations and lies” — language that framed the complaints, from his side, as an attack on a legislator from the country’s northeast rather than a workplace misconduct case. The ABVP’s September protest had put the opposite frame on record, pressing the university to explain why complaints from eleven students took four months to produce an inquiry outcome, and demanding the process be kept free of political influence.
For Congress, the case created an uncomfortable association: one of the party’s own MPs was removed from a major public university on harassment findings while party student organizations stood accused of silence. The university, for its part, took the unusual step of dismissing a serving MP from a tenured professorship — a decision that required the vice-chancellor’s signature on a “major punishment” recommendation, and that JNU issued with immediate effect rather than suspending him first. No statement from the Congress party or the Lok Sabha appears in the coverage reviewed for this page.
Current Status
The dismissal from JNU stands, with immediate effect as of October 9, 2026. Akoijam remains the elected member of Parliament for Inner Manipur — the dismissal removed his university post, not his parliamentary seat, and no resignation from Parliament has been reported. He denies the allegations and has characterized the process as politically motivated. No criminal case arising from the students’ complaints is reported in the sources reviewed for this page; the university’s Internal Committee findings remain an institutional disciplinary outcome, and the account on this page rests on that distinction.
Impact on Their Career/Life
Akoijam’s dual career — professor and parliamentarian — has lost one of its two pillars. The dismissal disqualifies him, under the CCS rules the order invoked, from future government employment, closing the door on the academic-administrative career that predated his 2024 election. His political future now carries the findings as context: a sitting MP publicly dismissed by one of India’s foremost universities for harassment his own students alleged, with his defense resting on claims of political scheming. Whatever voters in Inner Manipur make of it at the next election, the institutional verdict is already on the record, signed by a university vice-chancellor and issued while he holds national office.