As the Uttar Pradesh Police continues to probe the violence in Banaras Hindu University (BHU) campus where a girl was molested on the campus, on Thursday, yet another incident was reported where a woman student was assaulted.
BHU student sexually assaulted; authorities tried to hush up incident
The postgraduate student from Banaras Hindu University's faculty of arts was allegedly assaulted by a male classmate because she refused to talk to him.
The accused, second-year MA student, allegedly slapped and dragged her by the hair.
"The student had come to BHU with her husband. The accused, Sheetla Sharan Gaur, allegedly slapped her in front of her husband," Bhelupur police Circle Officer Ayodhya Prasad Singh was quoted as saying by the Indian Express.
The accused assaulted the victim at around 12:00 pm on Thursday following which the victim, an MA Social Work student, lodged an FIR against Gaur with the Lanka police station. He was arrested on Thursday evening.
The accused had been booked under sections 354 B (assault or use of criminal force to woman with intent to disrobe), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 506 (criminal intimidation), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), and other related sections of the Indian Penal Code.
Shradhha Singh, a professor and member of the BHU proctorial board, said the boy had assaulted the victim as she refused to talk to him.
"The two knew each other. As the girl refused to speak to the student, he slapped her. She lodged a complaint with the proctorial board and we assisted her in approaching the police," Singh said.
BHU comes under fire again
As the incident comes days after a violent confrontation between students, varsity administration and the police, the university has come under fire again.
"While such a big crowd of policemen and policewomen have been deployed to stop an unarmed man like me... inside the campus, students are still being assaulted and molested. This is BHU," psephologist and Swaraj Abhiyan president Yogendra Yadav was quoted as saying by the IE.
The National Commission for Women (NCW), on Friday, held the Vice-chancellor of Banaras Hindu University responsible on Friday for the violence in BHU premises.
The VC will be summoned for interrogation, an NCW member Rekha Sharma said.
Even Nobel Peace Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi took a dig at the university when the infamous incident happened.
"I am deeply pained by whatever happened in BHU. I want to say that the girl, who was molested, is a courageous Indian girl who represents the voice of India. She has broken her silence and filed the complaint, so I definitely applaud her courage", he said.
However, it's not just women students of BHU who have been assaulted. Last year, a 22-year-old male student was sexually assaulted by several men.
