Hyderabad University students protest after a lecturer tries to rape a foreign student
05-Dec-2022
374
Hyderabad (The Hawk): The Hyderabad University was shaken by student protests on Saturday after a professor allegedly tried to sexually attack a foreign student.
Professor Ravi Ranjan of the School of Humanities' Hindi Department has been taken into custody by the police. Later on in the day, he will be presented in court, a police official said.
On Friday night, the professor allegedly invited the student to his house near the school on the pretence of teaching her Hindi before attempting to sexually assault her and providing wine to the occasion.
The woman, who had been severely traumatised by the sexual attack, told her classmates what had happened. She turned to an online programme for translation since she struggled to express herself well in English.
Other students hurried the victim, who is from Thailand and just started the master's programme, to the university's health centre. She filed a complaint with the Gachibowli police station, part of the Cyberabad Police Commissionerate, following the examination.
A complaint was also made by the central university's director of the foreign exchange programme.
The professor was arrested after the police filed a complaint against him under Indian Penal Code (IPC) section 354 (Assault or criminal force to women with intent to outrage her modesty).
With the aid of a translator, the police took down the victim's statement, who was 23 years old.
As word of the sexual assault spread, students gathered outside the university' main gate and held a demonstration, calling for the professor to face harsh punishment. They urged the university's administration to suspend him right away.
The university administration was also criticised by the students for taking so long to file a police report against the accused. They claimed that neither the Registrar nor the Vice-Chancellor had ever met the victim.
The students from several groups declared that they would keep protesting until the institution took action against him.
(Inputs from Agencies)
