New Delhi: The NHRC has issued a notice to the Andhra Pradesh government and the state’s police chief over a college student committing suicide allegedly due to sexual harassment by a faculty member, officials said on Tuesday.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in a statement has observed that apparently, the “negligent and reckless attitude of the authorities” of the institution has led to this incident.
The Andhra Pradesh Police arrested five people in Visakhapatnam on Tuesday in connection with the death by suicide of the 17-year-old girl, who made sexual harassment allegations against her college officials.
She ended her life by jumping to death from a building in the intervening night of March 28 and 29, alleging that some unidentified persons had threatened to post her objectionable pictures on social media.
The NHRC has taken suo motu cognisance of a media report that “unable to bear the sexual harassment by a faculty member, a first-year diploma student committed suicide by jumping from the fourth floor of Chaitanya Engineering College in Kommadi area, Visakhapatnam district, Andhra Pradesh on March 28”, it said.
Reportedly, in a message to her father on his mobile-phone, she had said alleged that sexual harassment of girl students is “common in the college and the management was not able to stop it”, the statement said.
The commission has observed that the content of the news report, if true, raise a serious issue of violation of human rights and it is a matter of concern.
The NHRC said that accordingly, it has issued notices to the chief secretary and the director general of police of Andhra Pradesh, seeking a detailed report in four weeks. It should also include the status of the investigation, the rights panel said.
Also, allegations of sexual harassment of other students in the college, require to be “investigated thoroughly” so that the perpetrators are booked and such incidents of violation of the right to life and dignity do not recur, it said.
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