Sexual harassment case: Visva Bharati unequivocally denies allegations

Santiniketan: A day after filing of a police complaint by the father of a girl student of the Visva Bharati, who was allegedly molested and sexually harassed by three of her seniors, the university today “unequivocally” denied the allegations. “Certain media reports of yesterday and today have come to light which are viewed by us as defamatory to the office of the Vice-Chancellor. The University unequivocally denied the allegations implied in these reports,” a tersely worded statement issued by Sandip Basu Sarbadhikary, spokesperson of the Visva Bharati vice-chancellor said. The press release was handed to the reporters by the university but clarifications sought by them were not answered. [caption id=“attachment_1600609” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational Image. Reuters[/caption] The girl’s father had met Birbhum Superintendent of Police Alok Rajoria and lodged the complaint against Visva Bharati Vice-Chancellor Sushanta Duttagupta and Principal of Kala Bhavan Sisir Sahana yesterday. In his complaint the girl’s father had alleged that Sahana had tried to ‘minimise’ the matter, raised allegations against her and ‘ordered’ him to compromise. The girl’s father had also told the police that when he met the vice-chancellor to get justice Duttagupta had suddenly offered him money to purchase clothes and ordered him not to seek help from police. “He (VC) told that it would affect my daughter’s career,” the father of the girl, who hails from Sikkim, had told PTI. Siddhinath Gupta, IG (Western Range), had confirmed that the complaint had been received and said police would look into the allegations before deciding whether it would be included in the main case or a new case could be started. Attempts to contact both Duttagupta and Sahana yesterday had failed. The girl, who hails from Sikkim and is a student of Kala Bhavan, had lodged a complaint with the university authorities last week that three seniors of her department and an outsider had sexually harassed her and clicked photos with their mobiles and threatened to blackmail her. She is under treatment at Burdwan Medical College and Hospital. The three accused students, two from the second year and one from the third year, were arrested and are now under judicial custody. The outsider is yet to be arrested. PTI