Mangalore: Police on Monday took cognizance of a case of sexual harassment at an educational institution in the city. A PUC student, a minor, has accused her lecturer Harish Acharya, a Kannada lecturer at St. Raymond's College of sexually harassing her and police are looking for the accused, a resident of Bantwal.

The harassment, according to the complainant, had been going on for a few days. She was made to stand in Harish's chamber when he misbehaved with her. Harish is also accused of threatening to give her fewer marks in the examinations if she refused his overtures.

Police said the complainant, who bore the trauma for a few days, did not tell her family about the incident. It was her eerie silence that alerted her parents that something was amiss and they confronted her. That's when she revealed what had happened. The parents filed a complaint with the jurisdictional Mangalore Rural (Kankanady) police station.

The victim attempted to end her life, police said, adding that it is yet to be independently verified. Harish tried to force her to share her mobile number with him. Based on the complaint, a case has been registered under sections 354, 509, 116 read with 306 of the Indian Penal Code. Since the victim is a minor, police also slapped sections 11, 12, and 16 of the POCSO Act, police said.