The girl, a first year Arts student from Sikkim, has accused three students of stripping her. One of the accused is a second year student, while the other two are third year students. They also took her photographs and threatened to circulate it if the incident was disclosed, she said.
No official police complaint has yet been made.
On Friday, the girl and her father were first taken to the Vice-Chancellor Susanta Datta Gupta’s office where they spent close to two hours and then taken to another building for discussion.
It was not immediately known what transpired at the discussion. After the discussion, the girl and her father were taken to Bolpur railway station in a university car from where they left for Kolkata by the Saraighat Express.
The girl’s father has alleged that the varsity officials discouraged them from reaching out to police or the media.
Meanwhile, Mousumi Bhattacharya, Chairperson of the Internal Complaint Committee Against Sexual Harassment, said, “We have received a complaint through the principal of Kala Bhavan. We have summoned a meeting immediately and have already started our proceedings to probe the complaint.”
“We have talked to the girl and her father. We shall complete the investigation and submit report to the concerned authority as early as possible,” she said late on Thursday night.
“We have taken cognisance on the basis of media reports. This is not the first such incident, in fact there have been several incidents where students, staff, teachers… all have to face sexual harassment,” West Bengal Commission for Women chairperson Sunanda Mukherjee said.
“What can you expect when the vice chancellor is himself accused of such an offence? We are writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the chancellor to immediately intervene for the sake of this world famous institute,” she added.
Vice-Chancellor Sushanta Datta Gupta, as the then director of the Satyendra Nath Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, in 2005 was accused of sexually harassing a female scientist. He has repeatedly denied the allegations.
Source: Indiatoday and IBN
