Divisional Commissioner of Varanasi Nitin Gokarn blamed the administration of Banaras Hindu University for the campus violence, in a preliminary report on Tuesday. The report was submitted to Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary Rajiv Kumar, reported ANI.
In his report, Gokarn said that the university administration had ignored the complaint filed by a girl who was allegedly molested on campus, reported News18. He added that the administration was not only insensitive, but also did not act in a timely manner.
The report comes at a time when the university vice chancellor, Girish Chandra Tripathi, had dismissed the alleged sexual harassment of a woman student as “a simple case of eve teasing”. He also claimed that the “incident was deliberately staged” a day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Varanasi, according to NDTV.
Tripathi had once again denied that the police had baton-charged protesting students, and said the police action was directed at those involved in arson, stone-pelting and throwing petrol bombs.
On Monday, the university had ordered a judicial inquiry into the protests on campus from September 21 to 23. The university administration said in a press release that a retired judge of the Allahabad High Court, VK Dixit, would conduct the investigation. It will examine all the incidents at the university, including the molestation of a student, the protests and the alleged police violence.
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