JOIN USABVP and NSUI members protested at Jawaharlal Nehru University against AISA on Monday, after a PhD student was allegedly raped by a member of that student group. All India Students Association (AISA) member Anmol Ratan, 28, against whom the rape case has been filed, was not present in the hostel when police came to arrest him, they said.
Police said they went to his hostel on Sunday night and on Monday morning. The alleged rape took place on Saturday. The medical reports are awaited, said police.
Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) leader and Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) president Saurabh Sharma alleged that Ratan was in the hostel and the police was not ready to arrest him because the authorities were trying to protect him.
According to him, JNU’s Gender Sensitisation Committee against Sexual Harassment (GSCASH) has prevented trial of the accused in sexual harassment cases previously as well.
ABVP and National Students Union of India (NSUI) screamed slogans like ‘Bekhauf Azadi’ (freedom without fear) against AISA and the JNU vice chancellor. They also shouted ‘murdabad’ against each other intermittently between raising slogans against AISA.
Ratan was the AISA president till six months ago. Ratan’s friends and other AISA members have said that they are not in touch with him since Sunday night.
When asked about Ratan’s whereabouts Sucheta De, national president of AISA said, “We haven’t spoken to him and we will not speak to him is what we have decided. We have expelled him from AISA.”
In a statement, AISA said, “We have written to the vice-chancellor seeking disciplinary action against a JNU student (Ratan) who has been accused of sexual assault by a fellow student.”
Sharma from ABVP referred to previous such cases where professors and students were ‘quietly suspended’. He said, “Professors like Arshad Alam who was found guilty of rape never faced jail because these cases are taken care of by GSCASH.”
This year the then president AISA in JNU, Akbar Chaudhary, facing sexual harassment charges for two years, was also acquitted by an appeals committee of GSCASH, he said. GSCASH has representatives from JNU Students Union (JNUSU), JNU Officers' Association (JNUOA), hostel wardens, faculty and administrative staff. It was formed in 1999 under the Vishakha guidelines of the Supreme Court.
“The GSCASH has more members from AISA and they will try to resolve the case within the campus and will free Anmol,” said Sharma.
ABVP said that they don’t want expulsion on paper for Ratan for the sake of it. They want him to be punished by law.
“The girl who filed the complaint against Ratan was not able to go court to record her confession and statement, as she was not feeling well,” said police.
The FIR filed by the 28-year-old girl alleged that in June 2016, she had put out a statement on Facebook that she wanted to watch a film called Sairat and asked if anyone had a copy. She said that Ratan messaged her that he had a copy.
She said in the FIR that on Saturday, Ratan picked her from her hostel to give her the film and took her to his hostel Brahamputra where he offered some drinks to her. After that raped her and did not allow her to go and threatened her against complaining.