A group of men allegedly gatecrashed a girls college fest in Delhi and molested students⁠— the protests have now taken a political turn

• Hundreds of students at the all-women Gargi College of the University of Delhi (DU) are staging protests outside the campus against the sexual assault by a group of drunk men who barged in the campus during the college’s annual cultural fest.
  
• The students are now demanding “safe fest or no fest.”
  
• Come Monday, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) announced a Zero Hour in the upper house of the Parliament over the incident and the authorities are looking into the matter.

Hundreds of students at the all-women Gargi College of the University of Delhi (DU) are staging a protest outside the college campus against the sexual assault by a group of men, who gatecrashed their campus fest. The students are now demanding “safe fest or no fest”.

According to the National Commission for Women (NCW), nearly 36 intruders who were drunk, barged in the campus during the college’s annual cultural fest — ‘Reverie’ — on February 6 and misbehaved with the students. The NCW also alleged that the police took no action against them. “The Rapid Action Force personnel were standing right across the campus. They did absolutely nothing. We have visuals,” NDTV reported citing a student.


The matter surfaced when students narrated their experiences at the fest on social media. They allege that the men groped, abused and molested them. “Men stood in gangs, ogled at women, groped them, tried to feel them up and touched them throughout the concert,” said the official statement from Gargi students.



On Monday, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) announced a Zero Hour in the upper house of the Parliament over the incident. "Misbehaviour with our daughters in Gargi College is very sad and disappointing. This sort of behaviour will not be tolerated. Culprits should be given the harshest possible punishment and we must ensure that children studying in our colleges feel safe," the Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said.


Meanwhile, the Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal said in the Lok Sabha that, “It has come to our notice that some outsiders had entered the college, which is not right. The college administration has been asked to look into it,” ANI reported. The Delhi Police has now registered a molestation case.

“The administration also showed its laxity by opening gates from time to time,” it said. “The police force and RAF did nothing to control the situation,” the students alleged.

‘Girls shouldn’t participate in the fest if they feel unsafe’

The students also blamed the Principal Promila Kumar saying that “When the students tried to approach the principal for what was happening on the ground, she said that the students shouldn’t come to the fest if they felt unsafe.”

However, Kumar said that no such incident was reported to the college authorities. “It is a serious incident and I will deliberate on it. But unfortunately nobody has reported it to me. We had a huge security arrangement, including police, bouncers and even commandos along with the teaching and non-teaching staff, on duty. No one came to us and reported any such incident,” she told IANS.

The college authorities, or the students have not filed any official police complaint even after five days. ANI reported that the Delhi Police has now visited the college to verify the incident through the CCTV footage.

The Left-backed Democratic Students' Federation (DSF) compared the act to mob attacks at the Jawaharlal Nehru University and attacks at the Jamia Millia Islamia University. It also said that this was “deliberate negligence on the part of the administration and the security led to a situation where a score of inebriated men were allowed to enter the campus and grope and harass the students."

(With inputs from wires)

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