After withdrawing from campaign, Gurmehar Kaur leaves Delhi

New Delhi: Delhi University student Gurmehar Kaur on Tuesday left Delhi for the time being, hours after she announced pulling out from the campaign against the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).

Kaur has shifted to Jalandhar in Punjab.

Earlier this morning, Gurmehar Kaur tweeted: "I'm withdrawing from the campaign. Congratulations everyone. I request to be left alone. I said what I had to say.”

"I have been through a lot and this is all my 20 year self could take," said the student of Delhi's Lady Shri Ram College and daughter of an Army officer who died in the Kargil war.

Kaur, however, asked students to join a planned protest march on Tuesday at the Delhi University campus.

"The campaign is about students and not about me. Please go to the march in huge numbers. Best of luck.”

"To anyone questioning my courage and bravery.. I've shown more than enough," she said.

After withdrawing from the campaign, the DU student will not participate in any activity against ABVP members. Today, she also did not participate in a march held by a group of students at the Delhi University.

Meanwhile, police said Kaur has been provided "adequate security".

A day after the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) wrote to Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik over the threats to Kaur, the police slapped a First Information Report.

Joint Commissioner of Police Dependra Pathak told news agency IANS that the FIR had been filed under Section 67 of the IT Act and Sections 354 A (sexual harassment) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.

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Meanwhile, the Lady Sri Ram college backed Kaur, saying that she has the right to express her opinion.

"We support our student as the duty of institutions is to nurture students without fear. Gurmehar has right to express her opinion and she responded sensitively, bravely. She has fulfilled her duty as a young citizen," the college said in a statement.

Kaur launched a social media campaign against the ABVP after it forced the cancellation of a seminar at Ramjas College.

It was then accused of attacking students, lecturers, and journalists in the campus.

 

Kaur posted a video on Facebook with placards, one of which read: "I am a student of Delhi University. I am not afraid of ABVP. I am not alone. Every student of India is with me."

She then received rape and death threats on the social media. Some of those who trolled her called her "anti-national".

(With Agency inputs)