KULLU: A professor and three female students of Government College, Dharamshala, have been named in an FIR following the death of a 19-year-old student who had alleged sexual harassment and ragging, police said.
The student died at a hospital in Ludhiana on December 26, Kangra superintendent of police Ashok Ratan said, adding that the cause of death is under investigation. A video, said to have been recorded at a hospital in Pathankot and circulated on social media on Thursday, shows the student in visible distress. In the video, she alleges harassment by the professor and confirms inappropriate conduct when questioned.
Acting on a complaint filed by the victim’s father, Dharamshala police registered a case on Thursday against the professor and three students under Sections 75 (sexual harassment), 115(2) (causing hurt) and 3(5) (common intention) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), along with Section 3 of the Himachal Pradesh Educational Institution (Prohibition of) Ragging Act, 2009. The three students, now in their second year, were classmates of the victim, who had failed her first-year examinations.
According to the complaint, the victim’s father alleged that sustained harassment by the professor and the three students pushed his daughter into depression. He claimed that on September 18 last year, the three students subjected her to ragging, assaulted her, and that one of them struck her with a bottle and cut her hair.
“This incident deeply affected her. She repeatedly said she did not want to return to college and feared for her life,” the father said in his complaint. He added that he enrolled her in a private computer academy on September 20 at her request. “Despite treatment at multiple hospitals, her condition continued to deteriorate,” he said.
SP Ratan said the student was treated at seven hospitals before her death and that police are collecting medical records to determine the exact cause. “Several allegations have been made. We are verifying all aspects and a thorough investigation will be conducted,” he said.
Responding to claims from some quarters that the student was targeted because she belonged to a Dalit community, the SP said no such allegation was mentioned in the complaint. “The case has been registered strictly on the basis of the complaint filed by the victim’s father. There is no reference to caste-based harassment in it,” he said.
