Report indicts BHU administration for violence against girl students

Varanasi: Varanasi Commissioner, in a preliminary report submitted to the state's Chief Secretary on Tuesday, blamed the administration of the Banaras Hindu University for the recent violence at the centrally recognised university.

Varanasi Commissioner Nitin Gokarn, who submitted a preliminary report to Chief Secretary Rajiv Kumar, blamed the university administration for the recent clashes between the students and the local police.

In the preliminary report, the Varanasi Commissioner is believed to have said that the BHU administration didn't deal with victim's complaint in a sensitive manner and failed to handle the situation on time.

The Varanasi Commissioner's report is contrary to claims made by the BHU Vice-Chancellor, Girish Chandra Tripathi, that ''outsiders with vested interests'' were responsible for the mess at the reputed university.

Importantly, Tripathi had categorically denied any police crackdown on girl students who were protesting against incidents of eve-teasing at the university recently.

Speaking to DNA, BHU V-C had claimed that no girl student of the varsity was lathicharged by the police. 

"There was no police action on girls, it was only the outsiders engaged in violence who were attacked by police," he had said.

Tripathi further claimed that the recent violence at the prestigious university was the handiwork of ''outsiders'' with ''vested interests.''

The incident of sexual harassment that led to protests by students was created by outsiders with vested interests who had an eye on the Prime Minister’s visit to Varanasi, he claimed.

Allaying concerns regarding the situation at the BHU, the Vice-Chancellor said that everything is "normal" on campus and whatever has come to the public domain is a propaganda by "outsiders".

Protests erupted in BHU after a female student was allegedly molested by three bike-borne men on the campus on Thursday evening.

When quizzed about the safety of girls students inside the campus, the BHU V-C said, ''Ours is the only university that is completely covered by CCTV cameras. We got them installed long ago. In fact, when cameras were being installed the same girls who are protesting today came to us and said that cameras will disturb our privacy. There are 65 points already covered in the campus, which have CCTV cameras installed, there is no question of lack of security."

Importantly, the UP government had yesterday removed the Lanka Station House Officer, Circle Officer and an Additional City Magistrate (ACM) for failing to handle the situation at the BHU recently.