Kanpur varsity student found hanging; father says she was harassed, ignored

According to the woman’s father,  she was pursuing a BCA course at the university. She had accused students Aniket Dixit and Aniket Pandey of passing obscene comments against her. She had complained of this to the department head on January 31. The father said that he got an FIR lodged in the matter on February 7.

The head of department, Mamata Tiwari, said the complaint was transferred to the disciplinary committee. University authorities said the committee warned the two accused students in March and informed the student’s family of their decision, and the family had not appealed against it.

The police claimed that the woman and her father did not want any action in the case.

“First she lodged a complaint with her department, but its head forced her to take it back and took no action,” the father alleged. He denied having wanted the case dropped. “The investigating officer (IO) also did nothing and forced us to sign a blank paper. My daughter committed suicide as she had no other option left.”

However, Kanpur SSP Akhilesh Kumar said the police did not coerce them to drop the case but acted against the officers to ensure fair inquiry.

“On February 7, we filed an FIR under IPC section 354 (sexual harassment). While the investigation was going on, no one from the family pursued the matter. On March 24, the investigation was transferred to the university outpost in-charge, sub-inspector Ajay Kumar Mishra after the then investigating officer was transferred,” SSP Kumar said.

“Mishra asked the family to bring the woman to record her statement before the magistrate. The family came to him on April 1 and gave in writing that they did not want any action in the case.”

She was found hanging the next day. SSP Kumar said on the family’s complaint, they registered an FIR against the four under IPC section 306 (abetment of suicide). An autopsy confirmed that the woman died due to hanging, he added.

“The father has alleged that they were forced to sign on a blank paper. But, when they were shown the paper with their handwriting, they alleged that they were forced to write the letter. Due to this allegation, we had to take action against the two policemen,” the SSP added.

When contacted, department head Tiwari said, “On January 31, the woman had requested a change in her section as some boys passed comments at her. Although we generally do not entertain such requests, I made an exception and she was transferred. I also transferred her complaint to the disciplinary committee.”

Director of the University Institute of Engineering and Technology (UIET), Dr Renu Jain said the matter was taken up by a 10-member disciplinary committee.

“The committee heard both sides. While the woman maintained her allegations, the boys too alleged that she passed comments at them. We did not find it to be a serious case but warned the male students on March 15. On March 16, we gave the copy of our decision to the woman’s father. Since then, we did not receive any complaint. I fail to understand what went wrong,” Jain said.

Kanpur SP (west) Gaurav Grover said action will be taken based on their inquiry. Demanding justice for the woman, some students from the university staged protest and took out a candle march near the university gate Tuesday evening.