The State government has ordered a CB-CID probe into the alleged rape of a woman research scholar of IIT-Madras and her complaint of sexual harassment by her co-scholars.
The 30-year-old Dalit woman had accused Kingshuk Debsharma, a co-scholar, of sexual harassment and rape, alleged to have occurred between 2016 and 2020. She had filed a complaint at the all-women police station, Mylapore, in March 2020. A case was registered against eight persons.
The woman alleged that she was physically and mentally harassed by Debsharma ever since she joined the institution in 2016, while others also played a role in the harassment meted out to her. They took videos of the victim, circulated them and constantly blackmailed her, she said. She also alleged that she was sexually abused in Kodagu in 2018, while on a tour, and that she had been disrobed and filmed at the lab on the campus.
Recently, the city police added rape charges and sections of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. Assistant Commissioner of Police, Kotturpuram, C. Subramanian, was investigating the case. “The case has been transferred tothe CB-CID for a thorough investigation, since the accused live in other States and abroad,“ a source in the DGP’s office said.
