Hindustan Times (Chandigarh)

IES officer held for ‘sexual abuse’ of JNU student

- Karn Pratap Singh

NEW DELHI: A 26-year-old government engineer has been arrested for allegedly stalking, sexually assaulting, and threatenin­g to kill a Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student, police said on Tuesday. Police took action after the student filed a complaint on Sunday against the assistant executive engineer with the road transport and highways department.

Also, she accused him of stalking her on social media, blackmaili­ng her with morphed pornograph­ic photos, and “verbally abusing” her in public places.

He also threatened to kill her if she refused to do his bidding, she said in her complaint.“She alleged that he used to visit the JNU campus in an inebriated condition with two-three persons and harass her.

He tried to hurt her using a wire and a knife. She said the man was not letting her concentrat­e on her studies since 2012 because of a family rivalry,” a police officer said.

It is a grave loss to the music world. Kishori Amonkar was an icon, a leading light of the Jaipur-Atrauli gharana. Even while being a torchbeare­r for the gharana, she forged her own style that went on to set the trend for so many singers.

I heard of Amonkar’s demise after a student of mine wrote about it on a social media group. I was hoping it wasn’t true. I wanted it to be a rumour. But close to midnight, many news agencies started confirming it, and we were all forced to accept the tragic truth that Amonkar had passed away. Her demise is an irreparabl­e loss to the world. Amonkar’s biggest contributi­on to classical music was how she balanced tradition, while constantly reinventin­g it. For a student of traditiona­l music, tradition is of utmost importance. Tradition must be respected. But, it must never become a cage or trap the singer’s creativity. In this aspect, Amonkar was a torchbeare­r and a path-breaker — leading the way and blazing the trail at the same time. Now and forever, I am confident Amonkar will be remembered for her music, which has already immortalis­ed her. All we need to do is to pay tribute.

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