Fresh complaint against ‘moral policing victims’

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The day it hosted the 150th anniversary special alumni meet, University College made headlines for wrong reasons.
On Thursday evening two girl students of the college, Asmitha Kabir and Surya Gayathri, had alleged harassment by SFI activists when they brought a male friend to the campus to watch a play.
Cantonment police had registered a case on Thursday evening after receiving the complaint from the girls and their friend Jijesh (24), against 10 student activists, including SFI unit secretary Thazleem.
The issue turned murkier on Friday with the assistant commissioner, Cantonment sub-division, receiving another complaint against Asmitha and Surya.
The complaint filed by Soumya and Shabana, the trouble started when Surya blocked them from entering their classroom. Asmitha and Jijesh were sitting inside the classroom.
When the complainants tried to enter, it gave way for a verbal spat, which soon snowballed into a fight. Following this, the SFI activists in the college intervened, the complaint said.
Meanwhile, the SFI leadership in the district said that they would launch an internal probe to find whether their comrades were at fault.
“A preliminary round of probe indicated that the girls’ allegations of moral policing and sexual harassment are false,” said SFI leader Pradhin, who is in charge of Palayam area. There were many people, including senior faculty members and even alumni members present on the campus when the incident occurred and they were all witnesses to what had happened, Pradhin added.
Meanwhile on Friday, Asmitha and Surya filed a complaint of sexual harassment after meeting city police commissioner G Sparjan Kumar. The complaint was forwarded to the women’s cell of the city police.
Asmitha said that they would file another complaint before the state women’s commission on Saturday against the alleged smear campaign started by SFI activists.