A first information report was registered against unidentified students on Monday after several men jumped over the walls of Delhi University’s Miranda House college during a Diwali fest and allegedly harassed women students on October 14, The Indian Express reported.
The Delhi Police said that they have a suo moto cognisance of the incident and have booked the students for trespassing based on videos shared on social media. Initially, the police had claimed that the men were prevented from entering the college and that the event was held peacefully.
Multiple videos shared on social media on Saturday showed men seen scaling the boundary wall and the college gate in the presence of a security guard. They were seen roaming around the campus and shouting slogans.
“What followed was horrible. Cat-calling, groping, sexist sloganeering and more,” a student at the college alleged. “Men entering safe spaces to harass gender minorities is nothing new, but they outdo themselves every time.”
The Women’s Development Cell of the college in a statement said that the men reacted aggressively when the administration tried to prevent them from being on campus, The New Indian Express reported.
“They entered restricted areas such as classrooms, ignored the requests of professors and staff and responded rudely to appeals to behave,” it said. “A group of male students also shouted in corridors and attempted to vandalise the college property,” said the statement
Principal Bijayalaxmi Nanda said that the college administration had not anticipated the volume of the crowds that turned up for the event.
“We had taken precautions and there were police personnel but no one had anticipated or prepared for such a large number of students gathering for it,” Nanda said, according to the newspaper. “We tried to contain it with the guards closing the gates of the college and we called off the mela when the situation got out of control.”
Nanda told the newspaper that the college will file a separate FIR in the case after reviewing CCTV footage.
Meanwhile, Delhi Commission for Women chief Swati Maliwal said a notice is being issued to the police and the college administration regarding the incident.
“The women have made serious allegations of molestation and harassment,” Maliwal wrote in a tweet. “How did this hooliganism happen? What were the security arrangements in place?”
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