6 Months of Harassment, Deaf Authorities and a Suicide Bid

Soumyashree knocked all doors for help and justice, but to no avail

- DIANA SAHU @Bhubaneswar

"THEY (college authorities) will not let me exist peacefully in the college." This was what Soumyashree Bisi had told her father Balaram two days before she set herself afire.

Concerned for her safety, he wanted her to return home (90 km away at Bhograi), but she decided to stay back in Balasore, awaiting justice which never came her way.

A second-year student of Integrated BEd at Fakir Mohan College, Soumyashree is now battling for her life after suffering 95 percent burns in her self-immolation bid on Saturday. Her ordeal of sexual and mental harassment at the hands of an assistant professor of the college, Samira Kumar Sahoo, started six months back. Bisi knocked every possible door—from the college principal to faculty members, the Higher Education department to local MP Pratap Sarangi—seeking help, till she took the drastic step.