Shankar has taught even when he was jailed.
By The American Bazaar Staff
NEW YORK: The award winning, critically acclaimed poet and professor of English at the Central Connecticut State University Ravi Shankar doesn’t seem to have much luck driving a car: he was arrested earlier this month after a one-car accident, according to police.
Shankar, 39, is the founding editor and Executive Director of the international online journal of the arts, Drunken Boat, one of the world’s oldest online journals of the arts. He has published and edited a total of eight books of poetry, including ‘Deepening Groove’ for which he won the 2010 National Poetry Review. He has won a Pushcart Prize and served as a judge for numerous poetry related competitions.
But Shankar has also had his share of run-ins with the law, and been jailed also in the past. He has had convictions for driving under the influence and operating under suspension, reported the Hartford Courant.
In the latest incident, Shankar was charged with evading responsibility in an accident, failure to drive in the proper lane, operating a motor vehicle with a suspended license and operating a motor vehicle without the minimum insurance after, Connecticut State Police say, the vehicle he was driving was involved in a single car accident one Saturday morning in Essex earlier this month, and then fled the scene.
Police said that Shankar lost control of his 2011 Honda Fit near exit 3 of Route Nine and struck the wire guardrail on the right shoulder with his vehicle, which then traveled across the roadway and struck the wire guardrail in the median.
Police said Shankar left the scene of the accident with no reported injuries and was arrested at his Chester home at 7:45 a.m. Saturday morning. He was released on a $1,000 surety bond.
Shankar’s license was suspended at the time of the accident for a previous conviction of driving while suspended, according to records provided by the Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles. Shankar’s license has been suspended five times in Connecticut since an initial stop in North Haven on November 5, 2011, that resulted in a charge of driving under the influence.
In June, Shankar pleaded guilty under the Alford doctrine to operating a motor vehicle with a suspended license and interfering with an officer, and sentenced to 90 days in prison and to pay a fine of $500. Under the Alford doctrine, a defendant does not admit guilt but acknowledges the state may have enough evidence for conviction at a trial, reported the Courant.
At the time of his arrest in August of 2012, Shankar was on probation for two previous convictions and gave the responding police officer a New Jersey driver’s license belonging to someone else after he was involved in a one-car collision.
His license was suspended at the time because of a prior driving-under-the-influence conviction.
Shankar was also convicted in 2011 of giving police a false statement in a credit card fraud scheme involving the purchase of $22,000 worth of tickets to an international soccer game in New Jersey, and was sentenced to two years of probation. In a second case, Shankar pleaded no contest to charges of drunk-driving later that year. He was sentenced to six months in jail, which was suspended, and 18 months of probation, according to DMV and court records.
Shankar was hired at CCSU in 2002, and was promoted earlier this year, while serving a 90-day pre-trial confinement period related to previous cases. He, however, continued to teach students at the university in the day-time, returning back to jail the same day.
Mark McLaughlin, spokesman for Central Connecticut State University has said that Shankar was still employed at the university and received his promotion as planned on August 22 when he went from tenured associate professor to full professor. With the new title came an increase in pay: from $75,480 to $85,191.
Now some state legislators are asking for action to be taken against Shankar by the university, reverse his promotion and make better background checks when making promotions.
The Courant reported that Shankar has been a popular professor at the university.