St Stephen's molestation row: Thampu's lawyer denies victim's allegations and demands

New Delhi: St Stephen’s Principal Valson Thampu’s lawyer on Monday denied “in their entirety” the allegations levelled and demands raised by the girl, who has accused a professor of the college of sexual harassment, in her caution note. [caption id=“attachment_2377264” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] St Stephen’s College principal Valson Thampu’s lawyer denied the charges made by the victim.[/caption] The research scholar had last week sent a “caution note” to Thampu and the accused warning them of legal action if they did not facilitate disbursal of her stipend, access to her compounds and computational data within seven days. A copy of the same was marked to the HRD Ministry and University Grants Commission (UGC). “At the outset, we are instructed to state that the contents thereof are denied in their entirety and stated to be false,” Thampu’s laywer said in a response to the note. “Without prejudice to the aforesaid, since we have been recently engaged in the matter, we are in the process of reviewing the material, including the position as regards the travel grant, stipend etc,” he added. Queried further about the denial, lawyer Payal Chawla said, “It is just a holding response. It is ‘inappropriate’ on the victim’s point to reach out to media regarding such sensitive matters.” The girl had approached police last month, alleging that she was molested by Satish Kumar, an assistant professor in the college’s Chemistry department under whom she was pursuing her research. She had also accused college principal Valson Thampu of “shielding” the teacher when the matter was reported to him. Following a meeting with the victim, HRD Minister Smriti Irani had directed the Delhi University to ensure that her stipend is released on time, she is granted unrestricted access to the laboratory and assigned a new supervisor. While Thampu had maintained that the “additional” demands raised by the victim cannot be met, the varsity had called them “highly unrealistic”. PTI