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Student accuses hijab-clad girls of issuing threat in Mangaluru
The complaint comes a day after a Muslim student filed a complaint against at least 15 ABVP workers (also students) who had allegedly verbally abused the complainant and even called her “terrorist” as well as used derogatory language against her religion.
A third-year student of Dayananda Pai P Satisha Pai Government College in Karnataka’s Mangaluru has filed a complaint against seven hijab-wearing students accusing them of threatening her during an altercation between those students and the college authorities.
The complaint, filed on March 4 by Kavana Kumari Shetty, a third-year B.Com student, comes a day after a Muslim student filed a complaint against at least 15 ABVP workers (also students) who had allegedly verbally abused the complainant and even called her “terrorist” as well as used derogatory language against her religion.
On March 3, college authorities denied permission to the hijab-clad girls to sit for the internal exams based on the Karnataka high court’s interim order and asked them to leave the college premises. The same students returned the following day, around noon, and crowded near the college gates, Shetty said in her complaint.
“They started abusing the complainant, who was walking out of the college,” according to the First Information Report (FIR).
“Yesterday you told the authorities and did not allow us to write the exams, when you are on the road, we will take care of you, is this college your father’s and do we not pay fees and threaten the complainant,” according to the FIR.
The police has refused to comment on the matter.
Meanwhile, colleges in several parts of Karnataka are holding special classes to make up for the lost time due to the hijab controversy.
“The college is holding special classes so that we can complete the syllabus before the preparatory exams,” said one second-year pre-university student at MGM College, requesting not to be named. Preparatory exams begin after March 20.
He said that the college had completed around 80% of the syllabus and special classes had begun on Monday to finish the remainder of the syllabus for the academic year.
Several colleges in Karnataka have extended holidays or declared study leave to steer clear of any protests by hijab-wearing students, who are not allowed into classes with their headscarves.
“Except for the six girls who went to court, the others are coming to college. There were online classes earlier for Covid and after that due to the controversy. Most of the syllabus is complete since exams are approaching,” Rudre Gowda, the principal of Government Girls Pre-University College in Udupi told HT on Monday.
He added that a few more students from other places were still not back to classes for various reasons.
The controversy erupted in late December last year when eight students from Government Girls Pre-University College in Udupi denied entry to students wearing the hijab, a headscarf worn by women who practice Islam.
The students approached the Karnataka High Court on January 29 which was then moved to a three-Judge bench headed by Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, Justice Krisha Dixit and Justice JM Khazi. A final verdict on the case is reserved.
HT reported last Tuesday that the students in Udupi were denied entry into classes to give their exams.
