Authorities at the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, on Monday suspended a student after he was accused of sexually assaulting her batchmate, The Indian Express reported. The accused was arrested and “is cooperating with the police on the investigation”, they said.
He was arrested by the Assam Police in Kamrup district on Saturday. A case of rape was registered against him under section 376 of the Indian Penal Code, according to the Hindustan Times.
IIT Guwahati in a statement said the student had been “suspended from the Institute with immediate effect from 4th April 2021 as recommended by the Students Disciplinary Committee”. Four other students who were allegedly involved in the crime have been “isolated from each other on campus and will be retained on campus” for further investigations, it added.
The police said they were looking into their role in the alleged assault. “We will arrest others if there is any evidence of their involvement in the crime,” Kamrup Superintendent of Police Hitesh Roy told the Hindustan Times.
The alleged incident took place on March 28. The woman was thereafter admitted to the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital for treatment.
The police refused to give details about the nature of the alleged sexual assault, saying that the matter was still “under investigation”. But an unidentified senior doctor at Gauhati Medical College told The Indian Express that though the student’s medical report was yet to be released, it seemed to be a “serious case of sexual assault”.
A doctor also told the newspaper that the IIT Guwahati authorities had shifted the student out of the hospital to the college’s in-house facility on the same day she was admitted, allegedly against medical advice.
“The student was unconscious when she arrived,” another unidentified doctor told the Hindustan Times. “When she regained consciousness, she said she was sexually assaulted...Despite our advice, IITG authorities took her away on their own responsibility.”
But the institute denied this. In the statement released on Monday, authorities said that “all procedures were followed as per hospital guidance for discharge of the girl student”. It said the medical report of the student was awaited and “it was only after this the nature of assault can be confirmed”.
IIT Guwahati, however, added that the alleged incident was a “serious violation of disciplinary rules of the institute”, and that it “compromised the safety, security of students, hostel boarders and residents” of the campus.
“The institute condemns such heinous acts in the strongest possible terms,” it added, according to the Hindustan Times. “The institute is also putting in place enhanced safety and security measures to prevent such incidents from occurring in the future.”
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