Bhopal: University’s VC announces termination of wardens for strip checking girl students

Bhopal: Hari Singh Gaur University’s VC RP Tiwari announced termination of both the wardens of Rani Laxmi Bai Hostel for strip checking of 29 girl students on March 23. But, no orders were issued in this regard by the VC. Warden Chandaben was also removed from the internal committee to deal with case of sexual harassment on the university campus.

The girl students were strip checked to know whether they were menstruating or not after blood stains and a used sanitary pad were found on the floor on the hostel premises. VC RP Tiwari told Free Press, I have announced the termination of warden Chandaben and warden Sandhya Patel because it was there moral responsibility that such unfortunate incident.

When Free Press enquired about the report to the VC, he said, the probe committee didn’t get sufficient time to enquire about the facts so the report was inconclusive. There were many versions of the students in the report.  However, the students staged a sit-in in front of VC office on Wednesday evening. The girl students were demanding a written assurance from the VC. The students were threatened in the last three days to not speak the truth against the wardens.

The students on the term of anonymity alleged that the university officials were trying to hush up the issue because of influence of warden Chandaben. The university will be closed for three consecutive days from tomorrow and after that the university staff will get busy in preparation of the convocation on April 6, said the students. Students also demanded to make MP Women Commission chairperson an observer in the committee but the university denied the demand.

Meanwhile, NHRC issued a notice to chief secretary of Madhya Pradesh to submit a report within four weeks on the strip check of girl students on Tuesday. The MP Women Commission chairperson Lata Wankhede went to the university campus to meet the students taking cognisance of media reports on Tuesday and know about the incident. After the meeting she termed the incident unfortunate.