10/15/2017 BHU: The school for scandal

BHU: The school for scandal

ABHISHEK SRIVASTAVA / VARANASI - 15 Oct 2017

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Resentment is brewing on the BHU cam- Rpus even after con- troversial Vice-
Chancellor GC Tripathi has been sent on forced leave. Girl students, research scholars
and even teachers accuse the outgoing VC of wooing a bunch of unruly students and
encouraging them to behave as his personal storm troopers.

An
official, AN INDEPENDENT INQUIRY
INTO THE THREE-YEAR TERM
on the
OF GC TRIPATHI AS THE BHU
condition
VICE CHANCELLOR WILL
of
REVEAL MANY MORE
SKELETONS, SAY PEOPLE ON
THE CAMPUS

anonymity, said, "This is a strategy similar to

what he had tried and perfected in Allahabad
University. This unruly group was used by the
VC to silence voices of dissent; he turned a blind eye to their extortion, molestation,
consuming liquor and drugs, even in guest houses." The official named several
government contractors who were threatened by this group to pay them till they tried it
with a contractor from a neighbouring village who proved a harder nut to crack. Almost
everyone, National Herald on Sunday spoke to, named Rakesh Upadhyay and
Ripudaman Singh as the leaders of this group. Upadhyay's name had also surfaced in
media reports regarding molestation on the campus on the occasion of Holi. He was also
named in the clash with nursing staff at the hospital and he was seen sharing the stage
with BJP leader Manoj Tiwari on the campus.

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10/15/2017 BHU: The school for scandal

His name again surfaced in an assault on Deputy Registrar Sanjay Yadav, following
which he went into hiding. There was a buzz that he was hiding inside the VC's official
residence. The aggrieved people also accuse the outgoing VC of encouraging sexual
harassment and molestation, by allowing action to be taken against only a handful, even
as the majority of the accused were exonerated.

A professor of music forcibly hugged a junior colleague in front of other teachers.

She promptly complained about it but after an inquiry, that lasted a year-and-a-half,
the professor was given a clean chit at the VC's insistence, they said. A similar complaint
of sexual harassment against a professor of the Management Institute led to an inquiry
which revealed even more serious complaints against the Dean of the Management
Institute. The chairperson of the sexual grievance redressal cell, Usha Kiran Rai, was
removed following her refusal to drop the name of the Dean. When a male research
scholar was forcibly sodomised last year by a group that included a lab attendant, it took
the university four days to lodge an FIR and the victim's family continued to receive
threats. A research student in the department of Hindi lodged a complaint of sexual
harassment against her supervisor. But, while the complaint was forwarded to the
women's grievance cell, the charge was suppressed at the behest of Tripathi.

A complaint was submitted by a research

scholar in the department of Chemistry against
her supervisor. But the VC got the head of the
department removed and ensured that no action
was taken against the complaint. Lenin
Raghuvanshi, a popular social activist in
Varanasi and CEO of Peoples' Vigilance
Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR), says,
"A CBI enquiry is urgently needed into BHU
appointments. It would open a can of worms.
Rampant corruption has taken place in the last
few years.".

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