Several Muslim students of Udupi’s Government Pre-University College for Girls have been receiving threat calls from Wednesday by unidentified individuals after their phone numbers, addresses, parents’ contacts were leaked, allegedly by the college.
The girls, who have been the face of the protests against the college and state’s diktat to ban hijab in the premises of the institution, live in fear as a pdf of their personal details submitted only to the college were leaked via Whatsapp, reported the Quint.
The leaked WhatsApp message that was accessed by the news organization was a pdf document and had scanned copies of admission forms from the college’s ledger, which indicated the fact that the leak was made from within the college. The leaked online message identified the girls by their names and photographs.
Udupi’s Bharatiya Janata Party MLA, Raghupathi Bhat, who is the chairman of the College’s Development Committee (CDC) has been stressing, since December 2021, that Muslim students in hijab are not allowed inside classrooms.
The students have accused the BJP MLA of spreading communal hatred and giving saffron-clad protestors a free hand by supporting them.
A 17-year-old Hijabi protestor, Aliya Assadi realized that her number had been leaked within hours on Wednesday, as she kept receiving phone calls throughout the day, reported the Quint.
As the students demand that the college explain how their personal details were leaked on the internet, they also said that their parents have also been receiving threat calls.
The students who now live under constant fear that they might be attacked or their family may be harmed said that they aren’t comfortable in showing their faces anymore.
When The Quint reached out to the college authorities, they refused to comment on the leaked data.
On Wednesday, Karnataka High Court referred the hijab case, which is based on a writ petition filed by Resham, one of Udupi’s protesting Muslim students, to a larger bench. The new bench of three judges has provided no interim relief to the protesting students, so far.
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