The rape case filed by a PhD student of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) against an All India Students’ Association (AISA) activist has set the political agenda on the campus ahead of the students’ union polls in the university.
All the student organisations continued to talk “tough” against the alleged rapist. While left-backed AISA expelled the accused, Anmol Ratan from the party, Congress affiliated National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) and Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) are trying to cash in on the incident by staging protests.
A 28-year-old JNU student had in a police complaint alleged that her fellow PhD scholar Ratan raped her in a hostel room on the university campus after offering a sedative-laced drink.
On Tuesday, a lot of reaction was received over the incident.
JNU Students’ Union, which has members from AISA, AISF and ABVP staged a protest outside Vasant Kunj police station demanding immediate arrest of Ratan, who moved an anticipatory bail plea before a city court on the same day.
ABVP and NSUI also staged separate protests on the varsity campus to highlight the issue of gender insecurity and the “poor” safety of women students.
The statement of JNU rape victim has not been recorded so far. She has been asked to appear before the court on Wednesday.
“Three days have passed and rapist has not been arrested…we demand his immediate arrest. Why is the Delhi Police helpless in arresting himIJ like Umar Khalid was absconding and hiding in some leftist professors home, we suspect Ratan must also be hiding like that,” alleged the JNUSU Joint Secretary and ABVP member Saurabh Sharma.
National spokesperson of ABVP Saket Bahuguna alleged that Ratan is “not just an activist but the State president of AISA, Delhi”.
“In October 2015, Ratan was re-elected as the State president of AISA Delhi in its unit conference. He was never removed or replaced, so he was the sitting president of AISA when he committed the rape,” he said and attacked the media for not telling the masses about the position Ratan held in its organisation.