The Hindu : New Delhi News : JNU divided over beating case

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Friday, Dec 16, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

JNU divided over beating case

Staff Reporter

`Administration stigmatising victims of sexual harassment'

NEW DELHI: With the alleged beating up of a Jhelum Hostel resident at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) by six girl students threatening to snowball into a major controversy, Wednesday saw the students maintain that the incident was not a result of caste discrimination but a reaction to sexual harassment.

While the campus community itself remained divided over the issue, the girls criticised the JNU administration for "stigmatising the victims of sexual harassment" instead of taking necessary action.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the girls said Ritesh Kumar had been passing derogatory remarks about them in front of his roommate and their friend Mrityunjay Kumar.

According to them, he again passed some remarks on December 9 and when Mrityunjay protested, beat him up.

The students claim that following the assault, Mrityunjay told them about the remarks passed by Ritesh, following which the targeted women decided to lodge a complaint with the GSCASH and also decided to confront Ritesh collectively.

"However, Ritesh chose to be on the offensive right from the beginning and was completely unwilling to participate in any dialogue or explain his comments and actions, which resulted in an altercation," the statement said.

The students further allege that they were called by the Jhelum hostel warden at one o'clock in the night to enquire about the incident, but were not given a chance to put their case.

Describing the general body meeting called by the Proctor in the hostel as "illegal", they alleged that the incident was being wrongly projected as a matter of caste discrimination instead of being dealt with as a case of sexual harassment.

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