Visva Bharati molestation case: Reeling from trauma, victim leaves university

Santiniketan: The Sikkimese girl, who was allegedly molested and sexually harassed by three fellow students of the Visva-Bharati, quit the university today. She was issued a transfer certificate she had applied for, the girl’s father said. After completing the formalities at the Kala Bhavan, (school of fine arts) where she was a student and at her hostel, the girl collected her belongings and left. Before leaving Santiniketan, her father said “my daughter is leaving Visva-Bharati with a heavy heart. But after such a terrible incident, it is not at all possible for her to stay here safely. She is also still suffering from trauma.” [caption id=“attachment_1709197” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational Image. AFP[/caption] “Now, my effort will be to get her admitted elsewhere and bring her back to normal life.” Efforts to contact Vice-Chancellor Susanta Dutta Gupta and Kala Bhavan Principal Sisir Sahana failed as they did not take calls, nor replied to SMSes sent to them. The girl had lodged a complaint to the university authorities in late August that three students of her department and an outsider had sexually harassed her and clicked photos with their mobiles and threatened to blackmail her with those. The three students, two from the second year and one from third year, were later arrested and are now under judicial custody. The outsider is yet to be arrested. She had left the campus with her father on August 30 after meeting Vice-chancellor Susanta Dutta Gupta. However, she returned and lodged a police complaint on September 3. A two-member fact-finding team of the University Grants Commission comprising Tezpur University vice-chancellor Mihir Kanti Chaudhuri and UGC joint secretary Ratnabali Banerjee had visited Visva Bharati to investigate the matter. The UGC team, however, failed to meet the girl who is under treatment in Burdwan Medical College Hospital. Her father refused to allow them to meet her saying she was “tired and mentally upset repeating her ordeal to various people.” The Kala Bhavan student registered her statement before the magistrate under Section 164 of the CrPC yesterday. The girl’s father had said he wants to meet West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to seek justice for his daughter as he did not have faith either in the university authorities or the UGC. PTI