The Delhi Police on Thursday detained nine students of the Banaras Hindu University who were on their way from Jantar Mantar to the prime minister’s official house to submit a letter. The students, many of them women, have been detained at the Chanakyapuri Police Station without charges being pressed.
Several students and alumni from the university, along with social organisations and activists, have been protesting at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar since Tuesday, demanding the resignation of Vice Chancellor Girish Chandra Tripathi.
Tripathi had earlier dismissed the alleged sexual harassment of a student on campus on September 21 as “a simple case of eve-teasing”. He had also claimed that the “incident was deliberately staged” a day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Varanasi.
On Thursday, Tripathi said he will resign if the Ministry of Human Resource Development asks him to go on leave, The Indian Express reported. His tenure ends on November 30.
“So far, nothing of this sort has been communicated to me,” the newspaper quoted Tripathi as saying. “I have been in touch with Human Resources Development Minister Prakash Javadekar since the day of the incident. But if am I asked to go on leave, I will resign.”
Why are the students protesting?
Students at Banaras Hindu University began their protest on the morning of September 22, alleging that three men had molested a female student inside the campus the night before. They had accused the administration of insensitivity.
On Saturday night, the police allegedly baton-charged the students while they were protesting at the university gate and in front of the vice chancellor’s house.
Under fire for its handling of the alleged molestation, the university on Thursday appointed its first-ever female chief proctor.
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