LUCKNOW: A group of Lucknow University students, who first harassed a girl student and then tried to intimidate her in a classroom after she tweeted her complaint, have been let off by authorities with a verbal warning.
Chief proctor Prof Dinesh Kumar said he was probing the matter and action will be taken if anybody is found guilty. LU vice-chancellor Prof AK Rai said the girl has said that she will formally lodge a complaint if the accused repeat the offence. The accused have been consistently denying harassing the student, he added.
The victim, a commerce undergraduate girl student, had taken to Twitter on Wednesday to report the harassment. Naming a boy, a BCom student, she tagged CM’s office, deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma, VC and other LU officers and requested action against him.
The VC responded swiftly, assured full security and strict action against the accused, besides sharing his personal number on which the girl can call in case of emergency. He also directed LU officers to look into the matter.
The girl told TOI that the incident took place on Tuesday. "After classes, my friends and I went to Tagore lawn for lunch break. My friends sat on the bench and I was about to sit when a boy came running and took the seat. He was joined by other boys and together they started passing lewd remarks. One of the boys asked me to sit on his lap. We left the place. Later in the night, I searched on social media and identified one of the boys,” she said.
The girl tweeted she complained in the wee hours (1.57pm) on Wednesday. In the morning, the VC took note of the tweet and replied to her giving assurance of security and called her to meet him in his office during the day. However, before the girl could go to meet the VC, the accused boys, who had also seen the tweet, came to her classroom and asked the teacher who was taking the class to send her and her friends outside.
“When the teacher inquired the reason, the boys told him that the VC wanted to meet the girl. The teacher, however, told the boys that he himself will call the VC to verify the facts. At this, the boys left the classroom,” she said. “After the class, I went to meet the VC who assured me that I will be safe on the campus and take strict action against those boys. He also gave me his personal number for any emergency,” she added.