The UR graduate student who was arrested on charges of sexual abuse on Oct. 21 also got a temporary suspension from UR.
Rahul Saha, 26, faces charges of sexual abuse, assault, and aggravated harassment. His suspension will last as long as those charges are pending, according to Director of Public Safety Mark Fischer.
Court records obtained by the Campus Times offer more details on Saha’s arrest. These records show Saha’s arrest is related to four separate incidents — two occurrences of sexual abuse, one of assault, and one of aggravated harassment.
According to New York State Police, all four occurred at a home in Brighton.
The two incidents of sexual abuse happened about 11 months apart, prosecutors say, the first coming on Saha’s last birthday: October 31, 2018. The second happened this September, prosecutors say, while the victim was asleep.
The aggravated harassment charge is related to an incident that the case file says happened in July 2019. Saha is charged with dragging someone down stairs and then throwing them out of the residence. A month later, authorities say, Saha hit someone with a cricket bat — the assault charge.
Police haven’t said whether the same person was the survivor of all the incidents.
Saha, who did not respond to a request for comment, is a Ph.D. student in the Laboratory for Laser Energetics.
“I was astonished and dismayed to learn of these very serious allegations,” said professor Ryan Rygg, one of Saha’s co-advisors, “and am available to assist the University of Rochester and Monroe County in any way I can to resolve the matter fairly.”
Saha was arraigned at Brighton Town Court and held on $30,000 bond bail or $15,000 cash bail.
Editor’s Note (10/29/19): The original headline of this piece “Grad student arrested on assault, harassment, sexual abuse suspended” was changed to clarify that Saha has been arrested on charges of said crimes.
