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KULLU: A professor and three female students of Govt College, Dharamshala, have been named in an FIR after the mysterious death of a 19-year-old girl student who had accused them of sexual harassment and ragging. The woman died in a Ludhiana hospital on Dec 26, said Kangra SP Ashok Ratan, adding that the cause of death is being investigated. In what’s said to be her last video – recorded in a Pathankot hospital – she says: “Sir would go after me.” A woman is heard asking her repeatedly if the professor touched her inappropriately, and she nods and says “Yes”. Girl was treated at 7 hospitals before she died, says SPIn the video, which surfaced on social media Thursday, the woman seems to be in distress and finds it difficult to talk. Acting on a complaint filed by her father, Dharamshala police registered a case against the professor and three students under BNS Sections 75 (sexual harassment), 115(2) (causing hurt), and 3(5) (common intention), and Sec 3 of the Himachal Pradesh Educational Institution (Prohibition of) Ragging Act, 2009, on Thursday. The three women were classmates of the victim and are now in their second year, while the victim failed her first year exams. The father alleges that harassment by the professor and other accused pushed his daughter into depression. According to the complaint, on Sept 18 last year, the three female students harassed her and beat her during a ragging session. One of them allegedly hit her with a bottle and cut her hair. “This incident troubled her a lot. She kept saying she did not want to go to the college as the students would kill her,” her father claims in the complaint, adding that he enrolled her in a private computer academy at her insistence on Sept 20. “But her condition kept deteriorating, and I took her to a doctor in Dharamshala. I changed many hospitals during the course of her treatment,” he claims in the complaint. “The victim was treated at seven hospitals. We are obtaining the treatment records to find out the exact cause of death. Many allegations were levelled, and we are verifying all the facts. A thorough inquiry will be conducted in this case,” the SP said. There were allegations from some quarters that she was harassed because she was a Dalit. It’s not so, said SP Ratan. “The police case is based on the complaint filed by the victim’s father. Nowhere in the complaint does he say she was allegedly ragged or harassed because of her community,” said the SP.
