College overlooked past incidents: Dad of DU harassment victim

NEW DELHI: The father of the girl who was allegedly stalked and sexually harassed by a teacher at Daulat Ram College has alleged there were similar incidents of harassment at the college in the past and the administration did not respond adequately, a claim denied by the college.

Daulat Ram College saw multiple protests on Monday, and the girl and her father were speaking to HT at one of these protests.

“Around five girls in the past have also faced similar issues with the same teacher. But the college had not done anything... So we went directly to the police the moment she told me about him,” said the father, who shared screenshots of the purported conversation in which the teacher allegedly sent salacious messages to two other students.

Jatin Narwal, DCP (north), said they arrested the teacher on Monday and produced him in a court that sent him to judicial custody for 12 days.

Savita Roy, the principal of the college, however denied the allegations made by the father about the college ignoring previous incidents of harassment. She said that the father should be asked to provide proof before making such allegations. “He is no longer a teacher at Daulat Ram College. His letter of resignation was on my desk when I came in the morning (on Monday). He came to college and took two classes... The police had informed me of the complaint when it was filed (on January 31). But I did not want to tip him off on the investigation. What if he ran away?” said Roy.

Though Roy denied that any such incident had happened in the past, the DU Student Union’s gender cell representative, Narayani Anand, who met the principal on Monday, said that Roy had reportedly admitted to having pulled up the teacher in October over similar charges, and had let him off with a warning.

The 17-year-old girl has alleged that the accused, who was an ad hoc faculty at the college, used inappropriate words and gestures and even threatened to fail her if she stopped him. The FIR was registered on January 31 after the girl approached the police. She alleged that the accused had started teaching them from January and had been making inappropriate gestures towards her from the beginning.