NEW DELHI: Hundreds of students took to the streets of Delhi today to protest against
JNU professor
Atul Johri, who is accused of sexually harsassing female students.
The JNU Students Union, which has been agitating for the past three days demanding the professor's arrest, set off on a march to the Vasant Kunj Police Station in the evening.
A clash erupted between the agitating students and the cops outside the Vasant Kunj police station. The police fired water cannon to disperse the students.
Social media, too, rallied around the call and #ArrestJohri was soon among the top trends on Twitter.
At least nine women have lodged complaints against professor Atul Johri from the School of Life Sciences, accusing him of
sexual misconduct. The women had approached the Vasant Kunj (north) police station claiming that the professor was in the habit of making explicit remarks on their clothes and touched them inappropriately while delivering lessons.
A case of molestation and outraging the modesty of women has been registered against Johri.
Delhi Commission for Women chief
Swati Maliwal censured
Delhi Police for their inaction in the matter and expressed her support for the victims.
"JNU matter of sexual assault of 9 girls is extremely shocking. The man appears to be a serial offender. Even more shocking is the fact that Delhi Police is yet to arrest the accused. DCW is issuing notices in the matter. We are in support of the brave complainants," Maliwal tweeted.
Meanwhile, 54 JNU professors have demanded registration of separate FIRs in all complaints of sexual harassment filed against Johri. In a petition to DCP (South-West) Milind Dumbere's office, the teachers said the Delhi Police chose to register only one FIR based on only one of the nine complaints filed so far.
"This disregard for even basic procedure suggests to us that the Delhi Police has no intention of seriously proceeding against Atul Johri," the petition said.
On Friday, Johri had resigned from two administrative posts in
JNU -- the director of the Human Resources Development Centre (HRDC) and the director of the Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) -- on "moral grounds", but claimed that the allegation against him was a "motivated move" by students with vested interests.
This followed a series of protests by students demanding his ouster. The students said the administration should have suspended Johri and that he should have been barred from coming near the academic area to prevent any attempts to intimidate the complainants. They also demanded that the vice-chancellor initiate an inquiry against him.
Speaking to a news agency on Thursday, Johri said that he was being targeted by Left-leaning students. “The girls who have levelled the allegations against me had received a mail from me on February 27 regarding their irregular attendance in the lab. So, they are targeting me,” he claimed.
Responding to the charge, one of the complainants told TOI that the professor's allegations are "baseless".
