Banaras Hindu University student arrested for allegedly slapping, dragging woman inside campus

The police arrested a student of the Banaras Hindu University on Thursday for allegedly assaulting a woman student inside the campus, PTI reported.

The woman complained to the chief proctor that the man “dragged and slapped” her when she was on her way to meet a professor of the Faculty of Social Sciences, the university’s Public Relations Officer Rajesh Singh said. The woman filed a complaint at the Lanka police station, after which the man was handed over to the police, Singh said.

“The student had come to the Banaras Hindu University with her husband,” Bhelpur Police Circle Officer, Ayodhya Prasad Singh, told The Indian Express. The accused, Sheetla Sharan Gaur, allegedly slapped her in front of her husband. Gaur is a second year MA student in the university.

“The incident took place around 12 pm…the accused was arrested in the evening,” Lanka Police Station Officer Sanjeev Mishra said. The woman’s complaint said that when she was slapped, her phone fell down and broke, Mishra added.

This incident comes just a few weeks after the institute was rocked by protests and violence over an incident of alleged sexual abuse on the campus. The students 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.

Girish Chandra Tripathi, who was the university’s vice chancellor during the time of the incident, had dismissed the alleged sexual harassment as “a simple case of eve-teasing”. He has since gone on “indefinite leave”.