From pushing for the appointment of a medical superintendent, who has been involved in a sexual harassment scandal, to not even registering the sexually harassed student’s complaint, the fallacies of the authorities – police and university – have piled on one after the other.

Mishandling of the case on the part of the university authorities

FIR against 1,000 students after protests

Three days after the molestation incident, which resulted in massive students’ protests, the administration put the blame on students instead of addressing their concerns. FIR was registered against 1,000 students for arson. Tripathi even said that it would impossible to “run the university” if he listened to the concerns of every female student.

BHU VC pushing for appointment of a sexual harassment accused 

On Tuesday, at an executive council (EC) meet, Tripathi tried to push for the appointment of Dr O P Upadhyay as the medical superintendent of the Sir Sunderlal Hospital in the university premises, The Indian Express reported. It turns out that Upadhyay had sexually harassed a woman from Fiji in 2012 while he was the Advisor to the vice-chancellor of Fiji National University. 

Chief proctor’s resignation an “eye-wash”

BHU chief proctor Onkar Nath Singh, who had victim-shamed the female student, submitted his resignation late on Tuesday night after the university authorities were cornered due to the major backlash. 

But, students remain unconvinced even after the proctor’s resignation because V-C Tripathi is the real culprit for them. Some demand that he should be the one to resign, Firstpost reported.

Mishandling of the case by the police

What should have been done first – recording the statement of the victim of the sexual harassment – was not done even after six days of the incident. Police claimed that they were unable to reach her and therefore couldn’t record her statement, The Indian Express reported. 

‘I kept saying I was a teacher, but the police continued to beat me’

Recounting the horror that the police unleashed on the students, a BHU Sociology professor claimed she was beaten up by the cops even after telling them that she was a teacher.

The female teacher told Indian Express, “A woman student fell on the ground while police were lathicharging students..when I went to help the girl, I also got trapped under the police attack. I pleaded them not to beat me and told them that I am a teacher at the university, but they didn’t listen and kept beating.”

Feature image source: BHU website