Sexual harassment & Suicide: Delhi protests against college principal

New

, Oct 10: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader

along with his supporters ignited protest against

(DU) college principal who has been accused of sexually harassing his colleague. Kejriwal on Thursday, Oct 10 protested outside police headquarters in the national capital demanding arrest of the accused -- VK Arora, Principal of Ambedkar College.

Delhi government recently ordered a judicial inquiry into the case in which the victim committed suicide seeking strong action against the principal.

Delhi government on Oct 9 issued a statement saying, "Retired Additional District Judge BL Garg will conduct inquiry into all aspects and circumstances leading to the incident of self-immolation by Pavitra Bhardwaj."

College principal was sexually harassing her for four years

The victim -- 40-year-old Bhardwaj was a former Ambedkar College lab attendant. She set herself fire outside chief minister Sheila Dikshit's office on Sept 30. Later she succumbed to her injuries in a hospital in Delhi.

Bhardwaj,a resident of northeast Delhi's Maujpur area, was first sexually harassed and then forced to quit from the post of a chemistry lab assistant in BR Ambedkar College. In her plea, the woman had said the college principal was sexually harassing her for four years and had even threatened to kill her son.

In her testimony before the sub-divisional magistrate, she had alleged that the principal was asking for sexual favours and after she filed a complaint, she was fired for misconduct.

Therefore, as a desperate measure to drive home her point, she doused herself with kerosene at 5:15 pm on Sept 30. She did not leave any suicide note, but the survived with 90 percent burns.

In her statement to the police, she said that she took this extreme step "to protest administrative inaction into her complaint". "No one was listening to my cries otherwise," she said in her statement.

OneIndia News