Kingshuk Debsharma, a research scholar from the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) who is an accused in the sexual assault case of a 30-year-old Dalit woman PHD scholar, was arrested on Sunday from West Bengal.
Kingshuk is currently under the custody of the Diamond Harbor police station in Kolkata. He will be produced before the local magistrate on Monday, after which the police will likely obtain a transit warrant and will later be brought back to Chennai.
The News Minute had earlier reported that the survivor was allegedly raped by Kingshuk Debsharma and seven others. She was sexually assaulted during from 2016 to 2020. However, there was no FIR registered for a long time by the Mylapore All Women Police Station where the complaint was lodged.
The police registered an FIR under sections 354 (assault of criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 354B (assault or use of criminal force to woman with intent to disrobe), 354C (voyeurism) and 506(1) (punishment for criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.
Neither rape charges nor an SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act case was invoked by the police for a year and no arrests were made.
According to media reports, police personnel said that they were not aware that the survivor was a Dalit and hence did not invoke the SC/ST Act. Also the decision to not include rape was based on legal advice.
Meanwhile, IIT-Madras in a release said that all processes were followed when the complaint was registered with the Complaints Committee Against Sexual Harassment (CCASH).
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