Visva Bharati student alleges rape; police arrest 3 accused

Central university Visva Bharati has run into fresh trouble after an art student alleged gang-rape and blackmail by three classmates on Thursday.

She alleged that the three students and an outsider stripped and molested her, filmed the entire episode and threatened to post it on the Internet.

The girl, who is from a North-Eastern state and studied fine arts, lodged a complaint about the August 8 with the university authorities on August 26, a day after her father reached Santiniketan, around 180 km north of Kolkata.

Her father told reporters at Santiniketan that she was extremely traumatised and had to be admitted to hospital for a day. He also alleged that the university authorities discouraged him from going to the police, a charge that varsity officials refuted.

“She came here smiling, but is leaving in tears,” said the visibly shaken father.
The university further insulted him and his daughter by offering money to “buy clothes” since she was stripped.

University authorities reportedly tried to keep the matter under wraps and are yet to lodge a formal police complaint. They are said to have suspended three students on Saturday. The trio was later arrested by the police.

The girl and her father reportedly left the campus in tears on Friday, vowing never to return. They took a train bound for North Bengal on their way home.

Before boarding the train from Bolpur station, the father told reporters: “We don’t feel safe here. They (Visva Bharati authorities) do not have any sympathy. On the contrary, they are trying to prove my daughter guilty. They interrogated her more than those boys who caused her such trauma. We are sentimentally attached to Rabindranath Tagore and consider Visva Bharati a temple. What happened here is unthinkable.”