A final-year engineering student from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT-B) has been accused of sexually harassing 15 juniors on campus over the last 6-7 months, a premium engineering and technology institution at Powai in Mumbai.
SEEKING HELP FROM THE MANAGEMENT
The accused was a teaching assistant for the first and second year students and managed the Institution’s famed cultural fest called Mood Indigo as a part of the Institute Student Mentor Program (ISMP).
The students had also complained and brought up the matter with the administration who is the Dean of Student Affairs, Soumyo Mukherji, but no action was taken immediately.
After about 3-4 months of the complaint being registered, the administration simply decided to remove the accused from his position as an IMSP mentor and confiscate all his official certificates.
In the email that the victim had sent reads, “ He brainwashed me by saying how lonely he was as he was the only child in the family. He said that he needed a brother he could talk to. Then he hugged and forced me to lie down on his bed. And then he kissed me. I just froze. I repeat- I had not imagined this to happen ever in my life.”
Even after this the victim was being continuously harassed by his mentor on Facebook but he chose to ignore it. Unfortunately, this eventually lead to another encounter on IIT-Bombay’s annual fest, Mood Indigo, where the accused made unwarranted comments to the victim like “lick his tongue while kissing”.
Social Media as the last resort- After the senior graduated, the complaint ‘came out’ on social media last weekend. In which he revealed that he had been molested by his senior on a social media page, IIT-B Diaries-Confessions. The poat mentions that the college authorities where reported about 15 such cases but no severe action was taken.
Resulting which many victims were encouraged and chose to write on the page about their similar experiences.