A professor from the University of Hyderabad has been taken into custody after a foreign student pursuing Masters accused him of sexually assaulting her. The accused has been identified as Ravi Ranjan, a professor from the Department of Hindi, School of Humanities. Ravi Ranjan who resides in the campus, located in Gachibowli, reportedly invited the victim to his house under the pretext of giving her a book. He offered her alcohol and then allegedly sexually assaulted her.
The incident took place at around 10pm on December 2, according to students. The other students came to know of the incident after the victim, who was dropped off at her hostel by the accused, cried for help. The student who was deeply traumatised by the incident, tried telling her peers about it but since she could not speak English fluently, she used an online app that helps translate, to communicate about the assault.
Subsequently, the students alerted University officials and the young woman was rushed to the Health Centre of the campus. As mandated, a health check up was conducted to determine the assault. A complaint was also registered against the accused professor by the Dean of Students’ Welfare. After receiving a complaint, the police took the accused into custody, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Madhupur confirmed to TNM.
Speaking to TNM, DCP K Shilpavalli said, “We took the accused into custody this morning. A case has been registered against him under section 354 (Assault or criminal force to woman). We are in the process of recording the statement of the victim. After the translation of the complaint in English we will add relevant sections. We don't know at the moment whether the student had consumed the alcohol offered by the professor. We received a complaint in the early hours of Saturday.”
According to students, the victim had joined the course very recently. On December 3 morning, several students from different departments and student bodies gathered outside the main gate of the campus, protesting against the crime. The protesting students allege that there was a delay from the end of the management in filing a complaint against the accused. The students also accuse the Registrar and Vice-Chancellor of keeping them in the dark.
Speaking to TNM, Iniyavan, a students’ leader from Ambedkar Students’ Association said, “Since the time we got to know about the incident, we have been demanding officials to file a complaint against the accused and get him arrested. Neither the Vice-Chancellor nor the Registrar visited the victim at the Health Centre. They also did not address the students.”
Watch- UoH students protest on campus