Student murder: Shiv Nadar University among 5 named in FIR; it says took up the issue seriously, gave restraining order

The Indian Express Thursday had reported that two months before she was shot dead, Sneha had written to senior members of the college administration detailing the alleged abuse by Anuj.

Alleging that he had tried to strangle her and threatened to kill her, she had sought their intervention so that she could “feel safe and happy on campus”. In her email sent to two senior members of the administration on March 14, Sneha alleged that Anuj had assaulted her “for the fourth time in a span of two months” and she had “scars on her body”. “Once he had held my throat so hard that it choked me to an unconscious state,” she said.

The FIR was lodged under sections 302 (murder), 354(d) (stalking) and 120(b) (criminal conspiracy) at Dadri police station based on a complaint by Sneha’s father on Wednesday.

The complaint had stated, “The university’s failure to take timely, serious, and effective action is the reason behind my daughter’s premeditated death… I request that an FIR be registered against the accused and the university administration, and strict action is taken.”

Meanwhile, the university has stated that following Sneha’s complaint, they had taken up the issue “seriously and acted upon it immediately” by placing a restraining order on March 16.

“All necessary steps, including multiple interventions and professional counselling, for both students were resorted to,” it said in a statement.

However, the university added that on March 26, Sneha informed them that Anuj allegedly accessed her laptop without her knowledge and had gathered information that she did not want anyone to know. “Both students had voluntarily and knowingly breached the restraining order, something that the university again confronted the students with and asked them to exercise restraint,” the varsity stated.

The university said that though they strongly urged Sneha to place a formal complaint on multiple occasions for them to initiate stricter action, she did not pursue this as she said she did not want her family to find out.

Sneha in the email, reviewed by The Indian Express, had written that she did not want to file an official complaint against Anuj. “I don’t want to file an official complaint against him, but I want to make sure that, in any manner, he is not reachable to me or to my family. He knows my family and has their contact details, if he wants he can contact them and if he does so, my family will not understand the situation. In fact, they will take serious and unwanted steps against me,” she wrote.

Quoting from the mail, the university said that within the constraints of the lack of a formal complaint and the apprehensions she had expressed about the reactions of the family, the varsity “took all possible actions to address the situation”.

Meanwhile, police said that they have filed an FIR and a notice will be sent to the university Friday.

Last week, police had registered an FIR under the Arms Act against Anuj for illegal use of a gun. Police had said they are probing how he procured the weapon and brought it inside the university.