Victim targeted by peers in letter defending prof

ODISHA SELF-IMMOLATION CASE

- Debabrata Mohanty

Less than a week after a 20-year-old B.Ed student in a Balasore college attempted self-immolation to protest inaction and harassment following her complaints of sexual harassment by a professor, and three days after her death, it has emerged that 71 of her 100 classmates wrote a letter on July 1, supporting the professor against whom she complained.

Her family, friends, and even some classmates say the letter shows how everyone “ganged up” against her at prompting of college administration.

The two page letter written in Odia accused the girl of levelling false allegation against head of the department of teachers' education, Samir Kumar Sahoo at Fakir Mohan(Autonomous) College. It came a day after the woman first lodged a complaint with then college principal Dilip Ghose accusing Sahoo of sexual harassment and mental torture, and hailed Sahoo as a “great teacher who is known for his amiable ways”.

"As an internal complaints committee has been formed on the basis of the complaint by a woman student without any shred of evidence, the complainant should be asked to submit video evidence. If the woman is unable to submit any evidence to support her claims, then she and the individuals supporting her should be expelled from the college indefinitely,” said the letter signed by 71 students of the college of which 41 were women and classmate of the victim. HT has reviewed a copy of the letter.

The students in their letter further accused the woman of levelling the sexual harassment allegation after she was debarred from writing the internal exam due to low attendance.