An Ohio University professor was arrested Monday on child pornography charges and is being held at a correctional facility in Franklin County, authorities said late Tuesday afternoon.
Amol Kharabe, an assistant professor in the College of Business’ management information systems department, was arrested on several charges, including “illegal use of a minor in nudity oriented material or performance,” according to a correctional facility employee at the Columbus facility.
Athens County Prosecutor Keller Blackburn said he expects Kharabe to appear in Athens County Common Pleas Court for a hearing on Wednesday, though he is not required to appear in Athens until Thursday.
When contacted by The Post Tuesday afternoon, university officials were aware of the arrest.
Kharabe is on “paid administrative leave,” Stephanie Filson, OU’s director of external communications, said in an emailed statement.
Filson said she had been given no reason to believe Kharabe was downloading the material on OU servers or WiFi.
The university doesn’t have further information at the time, Filson added.
Kharabe’s salary is $120,360 for the 2013-14 academic year. He has worked at OU in his current position for about a year.
He received his Ph.D. in management from Case Western Reserve University and his MBA from Ohio State University, according to the College of Business’ website.
Kharabe was teaching three courses during the Spring Semester: two sections of “Enterprise Systems Implementation” and a special topics course for “Enterprise Systems.” Nearly 70 students were enrolled in his classes, according to the university’s course offerings website.
The Enterprise Systems Implementation course “provides students with a fundamental understanding of Enterprise Systems, focusing on their strategic and operational importance, implementation issues, and core functionality," according to the course description.
Allan Smith and Danielle Keeton-Olsen contributed to this report.