Students at Indraprastha (IP) College for Women, Delhi University, have alleged that some men scaled the gates of their institution during the annual fest on Tuesday and harassed several students.
A student of the IP College, who was an eye witness, narrated the incident, “The timing of the fest was from 8:30 am till 8:30 pm, and three different lanes were provided for the entrance of men, women and faculty. At around 3 pm, a large crowd gathered since the faculty vehicle was about to enter. Around that time, the boys crashed the gate and jumped on the girls, literally stepping over them. It was a chaotic scene and initially we weren’t able to fathom what was going on. There was no sign of security in our college.”
He added that the event went on despite calls for cancelling it and it was only after the police came in that it was stopped.
“The police came in to arrest the students. We also saw that some boys, who were drunk, jumped on the girls and harassed them. They even spat on the organising committee members once they were told to leave. The event went on and no one helped the girls or even tried to stop the event which had turned into a chaos.”
The police action left some of the girls hurt and injured.
“The police came in late and they dragged the girls in their police vans. Many of them got injured and had to be hospitalised.”
A girl, who came to witness the event, said, “The drunk men tried to scale the walls of the college. They even attempted to break a second entry gate which is at the back of the campus hostel. We saw men emerging from the back of the lawns of the hostel. We even saw girls’ stuff, like bags and combs lying on the ground. There weren’t any facilities provided by the college whatsoever.”
One student of the college, who had attended the fest, said it was chaotic.
“It became completely chaotic, and the fault was of the administration which didn’t take the security arrangements seriously. What I saw was a stampede on the gate of the college and the people who came gate-crashed trampled over the girls. Many of the girls were taken to hospital since they were badly injured.”
Another student of the college, who resides in the hostel, said that the administration and principal were careless.
“We were told to not go near the area where the incident was taking place and were advised to stay inside the hostel premises only. This was around 3 pm. The fest continued despite the hullabaloo. The boys who created havoc were drunk and also seemed to be high on drugs. In addition to that, they were not looking like they were the students of Delhi University. They were some creepy people who had come inside the college and harassed the girls.”
An auto driver, who was near the walls, saw the boys crossing the fence.
“We saw the boys climbing up the wall of the college. Earlier, I wasn’t able to understand what was happening but when the police came and started to arrest the female students, I realised there had been chaos.”
The authorities of the college did not respond to any query on the incident.
One of the members of the organising committee told Patriot that the principal had refused to entertain their request of increasing security for the fest. The students had asked for bouncers in addition to the regular security employed by college.
The atmosphere near the college is tense as the students of IP college are in a state of shock and are traumatised by the incident. The perimeter of the college is surrounded by police vans.
The All India Students Association unit of DU held a protest outside the college gate demanding punishment for the outsiders.
