A disturbing incident from the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) has emerged with a Dalit student filing a complaint alleging abuse, assaulted and attempts of forced sex against another student. In the said complaint, the Dalit student has alleged that he was held hostage and stripped naked in the BHU hostel. He has further alleged that the accused students also beat up the victim Dalit student in a closed room. As provided by Hate Detectors on ‘X’, the victim Dalit student was a resident of Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
In #UttarPradesh‘s #Varanasi, a #Dalit student, resident of #Ahmedabad, #Gujarat, currently pursuing masters from #BHU, Varanasi was allegedly abused, assaulted and attempts of unnatural sex by pulling off his pant was made on him in the university hostel by two suspects on March… pic.twitter.com/kswRdrbbPP
— Hate Detector 🔍 (@HateDetectors) April 1, 2024
On March 31, the written police complaint was filed at the Lanka Police Station in the said matter. As per the details of the incident provided in The Mooknayak, the said incident of physical and sexual abuse took place in Rajaram Hostel of BHU. The victim is enrolled in the MA course in Sociology.
The victim, while speaking to The Mooknayak, recounted the incident. He provided that the accused had forcefully grabbed him behind as there was a power outage in his room. As per the report, the victim stated “I am a student of MA Sociology. I hail from Ahmedabad, Gujarat. On Sunday night, around 02:45 a.m., there was a sudden power outage in one lobby of Rajaram Hostel, while the other lobby had electricity. I was studying in my room when suddenly the room plunged into darkness. Upon investigation, I found that the MCB had tripped. As I bent down to reset it, a student from the MPIMIR course grabbed me from behind.”
The victim further provided how he resisted the attempts made by the accused to remove the victim’s pants, as a result of which the accused smacked the victim’s head against the wall. Pursuant to the same, the victim fell. As per the victim, it was then that the accused tried to forcefully sodomize the victim. Upon facing resistance by the victim, the accused assaulted and abused him and even gave death threats.
“I somehow managed to escape, but he followed me into the room. He forcibly pulled down my pants while continuing to abuse me. When I resisted, he hit me with slaps and punches. He also snatched my phone and held me captive inside the room for an hour”, the victim stated while speaking to The Mooknayak.
Alerted by the cries of the victim, other students came to his rescue. Pursuant to the same, the hostel warden and the proctorial board were informed about the incident, as provided by the victim.
“The proctorial board team reached Rajaram Hostel and rescued me at 4 a.m. The warden and the proctorial board then took me to the trauma centre, where I received medical treatment.”
The victim has asserted that if adequate action is not taken in the said case, he will leave the campus. As per the report of The Mooknayak, the Victim provided that “I have filed a written complaint and am awaiting the filing of an FIR. If the FIR is not registered, I will leave the campus.”
Reaction of the police:
The police have assured that they will investigate the matter and take appropriate action. Speaking to The Mooknayak, Shivakant Mishra, the Station Officer of the Lanka police station, said, “This appears to be a case of physical assault. The police have interviewed the victim and other students at the hostel. The matter is under investigation.”
History of sexual violence cases at BHU:
In November of 2023, a case of alleged gang rape and sexual violence of a 20-year-old student was reported from the campus of Indian Institute of Technology- Banaras Hindu University (IIT-BHU). According to the complaint lodged by the victim on November 2, she was out with a friend on the IIT-BHU campus on the night of November 1 when the incident took place. The duo was near the Karman Baba temple when three men came there on a motorcycle and forcibly took her to a corner and gagged her after separating her from her friend. The three accused then stripped the victim, made a video of her and clicked photos. As per her complaint, she was let go after 15 minutes. The three accused took her phone number, the complaint stated. Based on the complaint, a FIR had been lodged. Later, on November 8, the survivor had recorded her statement before the magistrate and the police investigating officer, which resulted in charges pertaining to gang rape being added to the case. (For more details, read here and here) The survivor had also alleged that the incident had been carried out at gunpoint.
Notably, in January 2024, the state police had arrested the three accused. The three men arrested had been identified as Saksham Patel (aged 20) who had studied till class 10, Kunal Pandey (aged 28), who had studied till B. Com graduation course and ran a shop, and Abhishek Chauhan (aged 22), who failed his class 10 examination and worked at a saree shop. It is crucial to highlight here that at least two of the three men arrested are associated with the Bharatiya Janata Party’s IT cell in Varanasi.
In July 2023, two men were booked by the Varanasi police after a female student of BHU had alleged that she was sexually harassed and thrashed by a group of male students inside the BHU cyber library. As per her complaint, the group had also assaulted her on the route to the central library on the campus. As per the report of Times of India, in her complaint, the 28-year-student alleged that she was busy studying at the cyber library on Saturday afternoon when accused Saurabh Rai and his accomplices reached there and started misbehaving with her. Following this, she was forced to leave the library. As she left, Rai and his accomplices had chased her and subjected her to abuse. Notably, based on the complaint, the Lanka police had immediately lodged a FIR against the accused under sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 354 (outraging modesty of woman) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of IPC.
Prior to this, a similar sexual harassment incident had also taken place at the IIT-BHU campus in 2017 also which had resulted in massive protests. In the said incident, notably, the Varanasi police had filed charges of arson and other crimes against 1,200 protesting BHU students. In September 2017, a BHU student of the Arts Faculty was allegedly harassed by three motorcycle-borne men inside the campus when she was returning to the Triveni Hostel. The student alleged that instead of raising the matter with university authorities, the hostel warden questioned her why she was returning so late. Hundreds of students sat on protest in the campus after this string of events in protest against lack of safety and alleged victim shaming. In reaction to the incident, the Vice Chancellor G C Tripathi had said “Boys will be boys. Forget about what happened. Why don’t you stop stepping out after 6 pm if you dislike such things? You are a girl, don’t try to become a boy (by stepping out after sunset).” Notably, the Varanasi police had filed charges of arson and other crimes against 1,200 protesting BHU students.
Not the first attack on Dalits in BHU:
In May 2023, a Dalit assistant professor at BHU had accused two other assistant professors and two students of assaulting, molesting and humiliating her. Notably, a first information report based on her complaint had been lodged in Varanasi on August 27, over three months after the incident allegedly occurred. The complainant had alleged that the police had filed a case only after she had written to the Human Resource and Development Ministry, the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Commission, and the Chief Minister’s Office.
The complainant had provided then that a dispute had begun after she refused to remove a person from his post despite pressure from the accused persons. She alleged that the accused persons targeted her as she was a Dalit. According to the complaint, the accused persons “regularly talked about stripping her and making her do rounds of the university”. The assistant professor added that on May 22, one of the accused persons came to her chamber, threatened to have her removed from her post, and to kill her.
According to a report of Scroll, the police had filed a case under Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 342 (wrongful confinement), 354-B (assault or use of criminal force to woman with intent to disrobe), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code. Notably, the accused had also been booked under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
Educational institutes and the culture of caste discrimination:
Atrocities against Dalit students, as has been highlighted in the present case at educational institutions, is not an isolated incident. Dalits have been marginalized for thousands of years and continue to be discriminated against, humiliated, and killed for petty reasons. Even after protests are held after such atrocities against Dalits come to light, the scenario remains the same.
In the month of March 2024 itself, Dalit academician Dr. Ritu Singh, a former assistant professor at the university’s Daulat Ram College was abruptly terminated in 2020. Had expressed her resolution to bring forth the culture of caste discrimination prevailing in colleges and universities of India. As per Singh, her dismissal stemmed from caste-based discrimination, accusing college principal Savita Roy of targeting her due to her Dalit identity. It is essential to note that Singh’s against the castiest structures in higher education system and administration has been ongoing since the last six months.
In October of 2023, several student-led protests had broken out across universities in Uttar Pradesh after University of Allahabad proctor Rakesh Singh was caught in a video launching a violent attack on student Vivek Kumar, who is from a Dalit community. In the video that had gone viral on social media, the accused, Rakesh Singh, can be seen snatching a lathi from a policeman and hitting the student while he raises slogans against the proctor. Kumar could be seen trying to shield himself but Singh had continued to hit him. The accused had only stooped when the policemen had intervened. Former MA student and All India Student Association (AISA) unit president Vivek Kumar had alleged that the said attack had stemmed from a place of discrimination and bias towards marginalised communities.
The video can be viewed here:
इलाहाबाद यूनिवर्सिटी में दलित छात्र विवेक कुमार ने “जातिवादी चीफ़ प्रॉक्टर मुर्दाबाद” का नारा लगाया तो चीफ़ प्रॉक्टर “राकेश सिंह” बिफर पड़े और पुलिस और सुरक्षा कर्मियों के सामने दलित छात्र पर लाठियां भांज दी, वीडियो सोशल मीडिया पर वायरल है #UttarPradesh #allahabaduniversity… pic.twitter.com/IyyiNtB1EN
— Dalit Times | दलित टाइम्स (@DalitTime) October 18, 2023
Related:
IIT-BHU gangrape: 3 accused arrested, at least 2 associated with BJP IT cell of Varanasi
Dalit academic alleges assault, molestation; FIR names 2 faculty, 2 students: BHU