You look like a criminal, are you a chama@%$?’: Angry students over casteist remarks demand FIR against principal!

Allegation of harassment by principal of Delhi’s Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, Delhi University, on suspicion of hacking WhatsApp group. Student alleges casteist remarks.

Rajan Chaudhary

New Delhi: A case of mental harassment and casteist remarks by the principal of Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, Delhi University on the basis of suspicion has come to light. Angry students and student organizations have been protesting over the matter for the past several days and demanding FIR against the principal.

When the student organization of Delhi University came to know about the incident, they started protesting for justice for the victimized Dalit student. Students started protesting for the first time in Shaheed Bhagat Singh College on 18 November. Since then, students are continuously protesting. On Friday also, they protested in front of Malviya Nagar police station and demanded justice.

Anjali, Secretary of AISA, Delhi University, alleged that the principal has maintained an atmosphere of fear among the students in the college.

She told that, last month, around 24th October, obscene videos were sent from the phones of some students on a WhatsApp group of Shaheed Bhagat Singh College class. Something similar had happened in the previous semester as well. On the second such incident, some students wrote a letter to the teachers demanding that the matter be investigated.

After this, on the basis of suspicion, the college administration first questioned two students and asked them to fill and sign a form on the basis of which it was believed that the concerned student had committed this mistake, in which he was accepting the mistake and promising that such a mistake would not be repeated in the future. However, at first the students refused to sign the form saying that when they had not sent all those things in the WhatsApp group, then why should they believe that they had done it. However, after a lot of pressure, the students signed the form.

When the students were asked how obscene videos came from their numbers in the class’s WhatsApp group, the concerned students said that their WhatsApp had been hacked. The students said that they knew very well that if they did this intentionally, strict legal action could be taken against them, then how could they do this.

In the investigation that went on for a few more days, about 10-12 students out of the total students of the class were suspected in connection with this incident. And without consent, the mobile phones of all the students were confiscated, even though everyone’s phone contains many of their private and personal information, conversations and photos.

Among the 12 people whose phones were confiscated, one student was Sumit Chauhan. However, this incident did not happen from his phone number. But he was also under suspicion. During the investigation, the college administration found that Sumit had two WhatsApps in his phone.

Anjali alleges that, “On the basis of just two WhatsApp accounts, the investigators themselves established that Sumit has two WhatsApp accounts, this must be some new technology. Maybe this must have hacked the WhatsApp accounts.”

After this, all the teachers started pressuring Sumit to fill the same form and sign it. So that Sumit accepts that he has done all this.

However, Sumit flatly refused. He said that when he has not done it, how can he accept that he has done it. After this, he started being publicly humiliated by the teachers and college students. Due to which he started feeling mentally harassed.

After not accepting that he was behind the incident, Sumit was taken to the principal. It is alleged that there Principal Arun Kumar Atri told Sumit that- “You look like a criminal. Which caste do you belong to..? You are a Chamar..!!”

Anjali told that the principal used casteist words with Sumit. Since Sumit comes from the Dalit community. After that the principal slapped him 4-5 times and also asked the teachers for a stick to beat him.

Upset by this incident, Sumit came to Malviya Nagar police station to register an FIR against the principal. However, his complaint letter was taken but his FIR was not registered.

Anjali told The Mooknayak that, “A child comes from a marginalized society, so he was threatened in this way. He was also mentally tortured. We have been protesting continuously for 4-5 days. Our demand is that an FIR should be registered against the accused under the SC-ST Act. And the principal should be arrested. Because Sumit is still getting threatening calls.”

In an interview given to IANS in the case, Principal Arun Kumar Atri said that, “All these allegations are false, baseless and sponsored. We have a teacher here, Professor Rakesh Kumar, an investigation was going on against him for a fake certificate…”

In this case, National President of Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) and MP Chandrashekhar Azad has also expressed his reaction on social media platform X. Referring to the incident, he wrote, “We demand from National Scheduled Caste Commission, University Grants Commission, and Delhi University that Principal Arun Kumar Atri be dismissed with immediate effect and justice be ensured by conducting a fair investigation of this case. If this does not happen, we will not sit silent and will continue the protest.”

Courtesy: Hindi News