The Jawaharlal Nehru College College students’ Union (JNUSU) on Friday wrote to JNU Vice-Chancellor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit, elevating critical issues in regards to the dealing with of a sexual harassment grievance filed by 47 feminine college students with varsity’s Inside Complaints Committee (ICC) after a freshers’ get together held on October 22 on the conference centre.
The grievance was filed by the scholars of the Centre for the Research of Social Programs (CSSS) after an argument between two teams on Tuesday evening allegedly escalated right into a scuffle. As per JNUSU, the alleged altercation started after just a few college students handed “sexist feedback” on the feminine college students on the freshers get together.
The Vasant Kunj North police mentioned it had acquired a grievance on Tuesday relating to a scuffle however no FIR was registered. In a letter to Pandit, JNUSU accused the committee of diluting the case by treating it as an “particular person grievance” reasonably than a collective grievance. Whereas the scholars sought to be heard collectively, ICC Presiding Officer Vandana Mishra allegedly instructed them to pick 5 representatives as a substitute. The union claimed this determination undermined the case’s collective facet.
Through the ICC assembly on Thursday, 4 scholar representatives arrived late, making the most of which the ICC members tried to “intimidate” the lone complainant into giving a solo deposition, the JNUSU claimed. “The survivors disagree with this as a result of the grievance was filed as a collective, however they have been making an attempt to dilute this into 5 particular person instances of harassment,” the letter learn.
In response to JNUSU, throughout deposition, the complainant was reportedly requested “irrelevant and intimidating questions”, reminiscent of “why didn’t you go to your centre’s chairperson first” and “who advised you in regards to the ICC course of”.
The letter acknowledged, “These questions don’t concern the jurisdiction of the ICC, and have been meant to threaten the survivors and get info from her in regards to the case, to weaken our trigger.” The union additionally raised issues {that a} employees member recorded a video of the complainant in the course of the confidential session, compromising her anonymity.
Following this, CSSS college students and JNUSU representatives demanded {that a} JNUSU consultant be allowed to sit down for future depositions, any recordings from the session be deleted, and a restraining order be issued to safeguard the identities of the complainants.
Nevertheless, as per the letter, Mishra denied these requests and introduced in further employees from the Campus Safety Workplace (CSO) – an act JNUSU claimed was a deliberate effort to “defend the accused”. “This was a transparent case of victim-blaming, and an try to defend the perpetrators,” the union acknowledged, including that it demanded Mishra’s removing because the ICC Presiding Officer.
Within the letter, JNUSU urged the college administration to implement a clear and neutral inquiry course of, with a scholar consultant from the Gender Sensitization Committee In opposition to Sexual Harassment (GSCASH) included in all proceedings.
Whereas there was no rapid response on the allegations from JNU vice-chancellor, Mishra mentioned the committee “follows all procedures”, reported PTI.
A police officer, in the meantime, mentioned, “Within the grievance, one group claimed that the opposite handed lewd feedback on college students who have been partying. After they confronted them, the members of the opposite group acquired bodily and verbally abusive and compelled them to delete the movies of a few seniors passing feedback. Nevertheless, the primary group alleged that no feedback have been handed and that the scuffle was initiated by college students who have been partying.”
“Later, each teams gave in writing that they don’t need the police to additional pursue the matter and would take it up with JNU’s inner committee. Therefore, no FIR was lodged,” the officer added.
