Considering the complaint of students and lecturers made with the internal anti-harassment committee, the police on Saturday registered an FIR against former Joint Director of National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) Vasant Kothari. Notably, 33 girl students and two lecturers of the NIFT had filed a complaint against Kothari few days ago. Since Joint Director was facing sexual harassment charges, the senior officials were not taking action.
According to the Chuna Bhatti police, Vasant Kothari was allegedly involved in obscene acts, watching porn clips in the classroom and passing vulgar comments. After the complaint came to fore, Kothari was shifted to Jodhpur. SHO of Chuna Bhatti police station Hemant Shrivastava said that no complainant has approached the police but taking cognizance of the matter a case against the culprit has been registered. However the police came into act only after the join director NIFT, Brijesh Gere submitted a report of the details of the case and findings of the probe committee to the police.
SHO Shrivastava has not revealed the findings of the report but has confirmed that in the report it has been confirmed that the allegations raised by the complainants were true and after which the committee contacted and informed the police regarding the matter. The accused Kothari is yet to be questioned. The police have registered a case under section 354 (A) and 509 of the IPC and have started further investigation. Issues of molestation were raised in the month of September and Kothari was issued a notice by the probe committee on October 29. After the matter was highlighted in a bid to contain the damage Kothari was transferred to Jodhpur. Allegations were raised against the NIFT administration of trying to suppress the matter instead of hush-up instead of taking action over complaint. The State Woman Commission has demanded an explanation for the inaction and inactiveness in the matter from NIFT administration till December 11, 2013. The commission has asked NIFT director US Tolia to produce details of complaint and action taken in the case on December 11 before the commission.