IIT Madras professors get anticipatory bail in sexual assault case
India Today
Two IIT Madras professors accused in a sexual assault case were granted anticipatory bail by the Madras High Court. A case was registered against seven after a Dalit scholar alleged sexual assault by fellow scholars.
Madras High Court on Wednesday granted conditional anticipatory bail to Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT) professors Edamana Prasad and Ramesh Gardas.
A case was registered against Kingshuk Debsharma and seven of his friends, including Prasad and Gardas for sexually assaulting a Dalit scholar from 2016 to 2020.
The student joined IIT Madras on July 14, 2016 and got acquainted with Kingshuk. He allegedly sexually abused her, took pictures of her and used them to blackmail her for four years.
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According to the FIR, Prasad and Gardas are the fifth and sixth accused in the case. The survivor, after undergoing nearly four years of torture, had attempted suicide but was rescued by her friends. She then raised the issue with IIT Madras officials and an Internal Committee was constituted.
The findings of the committee against sexual harassment recorded that the survivor had undergone verbal abuse and was physically abused twice by Kingshuk. The committee recommended that all students involved in the issue should not be permitted to enter the campus until the survivor completes her thesis.
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