A political storm is brewing in Kerala over reports that female students appearing for the NEET, or National Eligibility-Entrance Test, on Monday were forced to remove their bras for 'security' reasons before being allowed to write the exam at the Mar Thoma Institute of Information Technology. The alleged incident took place at a centre in Ayyur, 55 km from Thiruvananthapuram.
Here are the top 10 points in this big story:
> Police Tuesday morning filed a case against those who carried out the checks. "We have recorded the statement of the father and girl who complained. We will record more statements," deputy superintendent V Vijayakumar had said earlier.
> Kerala minister, R Bindhu, has called on the centre to act against this 'inhuman and shocking' incident. She has written to union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan to 'place on record we take strong exception to such inhuman behaviour..." The state human rights commission has sought a report.
> However, the National Testing Agency, or NTA, which oversees exams like the NEET, has called reports about girls being forced to remove their bras is 'fictitious', and said it had received no such complaints.
> "On basis of media reports, a report was sought from the superintendent and observer. They informed no such incident took place... complaint is fictitious and filed with wrong intentions," an official was quoted by news agency PTI.
{{/usCountry}}> "On basis of media reports, a report was sought from the superintendent and observer. They informed no such incident took place... complaint is fictitious and filed with wrong intentions," an official was quoted by news agency PTI.
{{/usCountry}}> The NEET dress code, the official insisted 'ensures sanctity and fairness while observing sensitivity towards gender, culture and religion during frisking'.
> The issue erupted Monday after the father of a 17-year-old girl filed a complaint. "My daughter was in tears after she came out of the hall. She was preparing for the exam for a long (time). She was forced to remove her bra after the metal detector beeped. Shocked... she was not able to write properly."
READ | Row after women told to take off innerwear at Kerala NEET centre
> The father told a TV channel his daughter had dressed in accordance with the rules given in the NEET bulletin, which did not specify rules about innerwear.
> He also said that not only were several other girls also forced to remove their bras, but that these were then placed on a bench in the classroom. "It was an insulting and humiliating experience," he said, according to PTI.
> NK Premachandran, the Revolutionary Socialist Party's Lok Sabha MP has filed a suspension of business notification Tuesday morning to discuss the 'highly deplorable' issue in his constituency.
With input from PTI