Sexual harassment: As college student struggles for life in ICU, parties hit streets, demand justice

A s a 20-year-old college student fights for her life in AIIMS Bhubaneswar following self-immolation bid over an alleged incident of 'sexual harassment’, political tensions in Odisha have reached a boiling point, with opposition parties staging demonstrations and holding press conferences.

- PBD BUREAU/PTI

Alleging that women are not safe in BJP-ruled Odisha, both the opposition BJD and Congress held multiple demonstrations in Bhubaneswar and Balasore.

Odisha Mahila Congress president Meenakshi Bahinipati, along with party MLA Sofia Firdous, held a press conference in Delhi to highlight the issue of women's safety at the national level.

In Odisha, Congress Legislature Party leader Rama Chandra Kadam along with former Union minister Srikant Jena and others held a press conference here demanding a judicial inquiry into the circumstances leading to the second-year integrated BEd woman student allegedly being denied justice and subsequently attempting suicide by setting herself on fire. "We have been raising the issue of women safety since a long time. See what is happening in the state. Girls are not safe on campus,” Kadam said.

A fact-finding team of the Congress rushed to Balasore and met students and other stakeholders and inquired about the situation.