On March 6, A female student, pursuing Bachelor’s in Library Science was sexually harassed by Vinay Kumar, an office assistant of the Sanghmitra Hostel at the Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Lucknow. Since then, students have been protesting against the administration’s deliberate mishandling of the issue. Recently, between 16-17 March, the university administration took action against 15 students, suspending 11 and issuing show cause notices to 4, an action students say was “in response to their demands of justice to the victim of sexual harassment”.
A day before the incident, a student said the victim had used a kettle for warm water in her room as she was ill. “She was fined for using it, and her kettle was taken to the office, where the matron, Renu Pandey, and the hostel warden asked her to submit an apology letter,” said Anjali, President of BAPSA, BBAU while talking to The Observer Post.
On March 6, the victim, whose name has been withheld to protect identity, had gone to submit the letter to the office assistant of Sanghmitra Hostel, Vinay Kumar at around 12 Noon. Despite submitting the letter, she was called again by him in the evening.
“Around 3 PM, she was called again by Vinay Kumar, who told her he could help and move the file forward. Then, he touched her inappropriately, subsequently sexually assaulting her,” said Ashwani, a student of the university.
After escaping the assault, she reached out to her friends and approached the Proctorial Office. An application was written by them to the Proctor, VC, and the warden, which The Observer Post has accessed. Despite being aware of the incident, students allege that the warden did not arrive at the office when they, along with the victim, waited for her to address the issue.
“The students met the Proctorial staff and submitted the letter. The office staff told them to return the next day when a complaint board would be sitting,” said Ashwani.
The next day, on March 7, students arrived at the Proctorial Board office at the scheduled time of 12 noon. However, neither the proctor nor any concerned authority was present. The victim approached her hostel warden and submitted letters to the Proctor and the Dean of Student Welfare, but received no response. No action was taken against the accused or those involved in the incident.
“At 6 in the evening, the same day, the students and the victim decided to sit in on a protest, demanding the suspension of the perpetrators. They sat outside the gate of the SanghMitra Hoste,” Ashwani said.
Female hostellers who took part in the protest were denied entry to their hostel premises. “The very first day, the victim herself was denied entry into the campus though she was only 5 minutes late. The other girls who were day scholars sat in solidarity with her and university students joined too,” Anjali said.
A joint statement by university students read, “The protesting students, including women and Dalit students, demanded action against the office assistant and those involved. Their blatant suspension exposes the administration’s casteist and anti-women stance.”
“This blatant refusal to act against the perpetrators reflects an ideology that stands against victims—like the Tiranga rally in Jammu and Kashmir held in sympathy with rapists or the Unnao rape case, where accused MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar was protected while the victim’s entire family was killed,” the statement further read.
Administration targets students, defends the accused
The administration arrived at the protest site at 1:30 AM at night on March 8, and declined to talk with the students. A student quoted the proctor saying that “you do whatever you want, but we won’t do anything”. There were more than 200 female students who had already joined the protest.
On women’s day, a call under the banner of “March for Social Justice” was taken, and students sat outside Proctor’s office. Only at night did the administration accept the defeat, and suspended Vinay Kumar, and the Matron Renu Pandey who was helping him and threatened students.
However, the students’ demand for a written statement on the suspensions was not met by the administration. “They claimed the Internal Complaints Committee would handle the issue, but no steps have been taken so far. Students were manipulated to suppress the protests and protect the perpetrators,” said Ashwani.
Instead of addressing the students’ democratic demands and taking action against the offenders, the administration targeted the students, suspending 11 students—including four women—and issuing show-cause notices to 4 others. Neither the victim nor the students received a clear or written statement about the suspensions.
“They said that they were suspending us for protesting on 7-8 March, but the purpose for which protests took place have seen no development despite it being an open issue of sexual assault,” Anjali said.
Anjali asserted that this was the first time in the university’s history that female students were suspended for demanding justice against sexual assault. She further alleged that students were being targeted through calls to their parents, punishing them for speaking out.
Anjali, who also received a suspension notice, said students were deliberately and selectively targeted. During the protests, their privacy was violated as officials secretly took their photos to identify them. “This entire incident was pre-planned. They even instructed the guards to bar students whose photos they had taken from entering the campus. We were not even safe in a place where we were already protesting against such a heinous incident,” she said.
“We kept demanding written proof that action had been taken, as they falsely claimed. They insisted the process was ongoing but revealed their true intent when they suspended us without any provocation,” said Shubham Ahake, a student of Master’s in Journalism and Mass communications, one of the 4 students who received a Show Cause notice.
“The students kept asking them for a written statement confirming that action had been taken because we couldn’t trust them. We even requested them to sign our application with a stamp to mark it as received, but they refused,” said Shubham.
On March 7, students formed a human chain when the administration attempted to leave the protest site without addressing their demands. “It hurt their ego that students stood firm in their demands. Then came the Holi holidays, during which nothing happened on campus. Despite this, they took action against us, sending a clear message that they stand with rapists and sexual assaulters”, a suspended student told The Observer Post.
Anjali said students had long been demanding CCTV cameras, yet none were installed in the office where students have alleged mistreatment and harassment. “Their response to our demand for CCTV cameras was a notice barring students from taking their phones inside administrative offices,” she said.
In total, action was taken against 15 students, including three who had previously been beaten by outsiders and ABVP on campus. “Targeting these three students for past incidents, despite them being victims, exposes the alliance between the anti-women, casteist administration and Hindutva forces,” said Shubham.
The female students have been suspended for 1 month, male students for three months.
“The whole incident reveals the administration’s stance: if you are sexually assaulted, you must endure it, and if you demand justice, you will be mistreated,” said Anjali.
Suspension upheld, threats continue, protests persist
On March 19, the Proctorial Board’s decision on the matter was released around 8 PM. It reiterated the suspension notice without any reference to the sexual assault case. The students were informed that their suspension remained in effect and that they were barred from entering the campus for its duration.
In response, students wrote a joint letter to the administration on March 19, calling for a hunger strike. The letter stated that they were suspended for demanding justice for the victim of sexual assault. They demanded reinstatement and warned that they would go on a hunger strike due to the administration’s continued dismissal of their demands. They also called for the suspension of the perpetrators and a written acknowledgment of the action taken.
The Executive Council’s decision on March 19 stated that “considering the academic careers of the students, they would be allowed to sit for exams during their suspension”. However, they were required to respond to the show-cause notices within a week and sign a bond agreeing not to participate in any activity other than academics, or face further action.
Students said they were ordered to follow the administration’s directives, yet no relief was given to the victim, nor were their demands met.
“We have restarted our protest, but the administration assigned us a space completely isolated from the university premises. They have also threatened us with police action,” Shubham said.
(Syed Affan is a writer and journalist based in Delhi. His reportage focuses on Human rights, land conflicts, and Policy)
