New Delhi: Scores of students, teachers and women rights activists on Monday protested against the alleged molestation of a research scholar at St Stephen's College and the principal's attempts to hush up the issue.
College principal Valson Thampu told CNN-IBN that he had asked the PHD student to approach the college's internal complaints committee as he said he was not empowered to handle sexual harassment cases. But the student has accused Thampu of pressuring her to drop the case against the accused professor.
Thampu said, "When I asked her to approach college's internal complaint committee, she said that would hamper her PhD work. She said this on 9th then met me on 10th and on 14th I myself gave the complaint to intenal complaint committee. What wrong have I done?"
"There was a plot by her coaches to keep the complaint pending to blackmail me," he added.
A research scholar has alleged that she was molested by an assistant professor in the college's Chemistry department. The accused Satish Kumar, who was supervising her PhD, had also threatened to pour sulphuric acid on her.
The complainant has also alleged that Thampu had tried to shield Kumar and pressurised her to not treat the issue as that of sexual harassment. In support of her argument, she had also made public a set of recordings which she claimed she had made during her meetings with the principal regarding the issue.
The protesters demanded that with the probe being underway, the university should change the victim's research supervisor so her PhD doesn't suffer.
"We want her supervisor to be changed immediately. The professor and the principal have deliberately delayed her PhD so far. There should be no more injustice to her," said Maya John, an activist from Centre from Struggling Women.
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