E-Paper
Protest at IIT-BHU after student harassed, stripped by bike-borne men
Congress slams govt over the incident; enraged students claim outside elements involved in the incident, demand ban on entry of outsiders into the campus
VARANASI A 21-year-old student of IIT-BHU was allegedly harassed and stripped by three bike-borne men, who also recorded a video of the act, near her hostel here, on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday, said police.
Hundreds of IIT-BHU students gathered near the Rajputana hostel on the campus and staged a protest on Thursday, claiming that outside elements were involved in the incident and demanded that outsiders be banned from entering the campus.
The students said the incident took place when two IIT-BHU students, including a girl, were walking on the campus around 1.45am.
“Three-bike borne goons stopped the duo, pushed the boy, held him and harassed the woman. The goons were carrying firearms and held the students at gunpoint. The victim was found with torn clothes. The bikers fled through Hyderabad gate,” the students on dharna alleged.
According to a complaint lodged by the woman, she had gone out of her hostel with a friend on Wednesday night. They were near the Karman Baba temple when three men came there on a motorcycle, forcibly took her to a corner and gagged her after separating her from her friend.
An FIR was registered against three unidentified people under sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 504 (intentional insult with intent to breach of peace) of the IPC and under provisions of the IT Act, at Lanka police station, said police, adding that efforts were on to identify the accused and arrest them.
The students launched a protest and demanded night barricading to restrict entry of outsiders on the campus with a single-point entry/exit, centralized CCTV system and immediate on-ground and legal action against the offenders.
Subsequently, the IIT-BHU administration decided to keep all the barricades of the institute closed from 10pm to 5am.
“To ensure a safe and secure environment on the campus for staff and students, all barricades at the institute shall henceforth be closed from 10pm to 5am,” said an official at the IIT-BHU.
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra slammed the government over the IIT-BHU incident, and asked if it was no longer possible for a woman student in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency to walk fearlessly inside her own educational institution. In a post in Hindi on X, she said the student of IIT-BHU has been “sexually assaulted” in Varanasi.
UPCC president Ajai Rai said the incident was a “black spot on the law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh” and exposed the vulnerability of security arrangements at the IIT-BHU.
Abhay Pratap Singh, secretary of ABVP unit of BHU, demanded that the accused be identified and strict action be ensured against them.
