The Banaras Hindu University on Tuesday formed a high-power inquiry committee headed by a retired judge to probe the incident of lathicharge on protesting students and arson in the campus, which left several students, journalists and policemen injured.
Meanwhile, Varanasi Divisional Commissioner Nitin Gokarn in his probe report submitted to the government is said to have blamed the BHU administration for not handling the incident, particularly the complaint of the molestation victim, in a sensitive manner and indicted the varsity for not taking timely action. The report submitted to Chief Secretary Rajiv Kumar, however, has not been made public.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had ordered the Divisional Commissioner and Varanasi ADG Vishwajit Mahapatra to probe the incident that took place on Saturday night.
Promises action
BHU Vice-Chancellor Girish Chandra Tripathi said an inquiry committee headed by retired Allahabad High Court judge Justice V.K. Dikshit had been formed to probe the incident. Mr. Tripathi said the committee would shed light on ‘all aspects’ of the incident. “Whatever the recommendations of the committee, the University will take action on it,” he said.
He said he would comment on the commissioner’s report after reading it.
Amid speculation that the government had ordered a judicial probe, Uttar Pradesh Cabinet Minister Shrikant Sharma said only two existing probes stood in the BHU case — one by the ADG-Divisional Commissioner and the other by the District Magistrate of Varanasi. Mr. Sharma, however, told The Hindu that the CM had taken a serious view of the BHU incident and “to prevent such incidents in future, he appealed to the vice-chancellors of universities in U.P. to establish communication with students and identify those involved in cases of eve-teasing and take action against them.”
A fine arts student of the BHU was molested by bike riders while she was returning to her hostel on Thursday evening. The victim alleged that instead of helping her the security guards on campus blamed her for not walking carefully in the dark while the warden questioned her character.
Angered by this, scores of students, girls and boys, gathered at the main gate of the BHU for a protest which turned violent on Saturday after police lathi-charged the protesters, who the administration claimed included ‘anti-social elements.’
