In November 2022, three women students from the MNR Medical College in Telangana’s Sangareddy district, located 60 km from Hyderabad, had filed a sexual harassment complaint against the college’s Assistant Director (AD). Eight months later, one of the complainants, Rashmita, has alleged that she was deliberately failed in her final year exam because she was unwilling to withdraw the complaint. She found that she alone had failed in practicals in a class of 77 students while she had passed her theory exams.
Despite an FIR being filed und,er Sections 354D (Stalking) and 509 (act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the case has seen no progress. Last week, the Telangana Junior Doctors Association held a protest demanding justice for Rashmita while the Healthcare Reforms Doctors Association (HRDA) asked for the practical exam to be conducted again. The HRDA also submitted a letter to Telangana Governor Dr Tamilisai Soudararajan to intervene in her capacity as the Chancellor of the Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences (KNRUHS), under whose ambit MNR Medical College functions.
Speaking to TNM, Rashmita, who is an Anaesthesiology student, alleged, “The harassment started off with the assistant director telling women students how they should be dressing… he would conduct ‘checks’ in the girls hostel. Then he started to click photographs of women students in towels when they were coming out of the hostel washrooms. He would tell us that we weren’t supposed to come out without our clothes on.”
Another student from Rashmita’s department who wanted to remain anonymous corroborated the account. Both the women alleged that the AD had invaded the privacy of the women students on several occasions and made them uncomfortable. “In November last year, he entered the duty room – where women students change into their scrubs and sometimes take rest – without the Medical Superintendent, who was waiting just outside. Technically speaking, he had no business being there. He walked in and started tearing off the papers we had stuck on the see-through door for our privacy,” she said.
When the students tried to explain that the papers were affixed to the door so that they could change without discomfort, the AD is alleged to have said that the doors are see-through so that they could keep a watchful eye on what was happening.
Another student alleged that the accused would often knock on the washroom doors in the hostels while women students were inside. “I even brought up the issue with the warden but there was no solution,” she said.
On November 3, 2022, Rashmita and two other women students filed the complaint with the Sangareddy police. Several students also sat on a strike against the AD’s alleged misbehaviour, after which the college administration issued a memo on November 7 stating that he would be transferred out of the college with immediate effect on disciplinary grounds. The memo, which was accessed by TNM, also stated that a committee would be constituted to look into the allegations and appropriate action would be taken within 10 days based on the committee’s findings. However, Rashmita said that neither was the accused transferred nor a committee formed, despite the students raising the issue with the college administration several times.
When TNM contacted MNR Medical College principal Venkata Ramaiah, he claimed that a committee had been set up with faculty members from the nursing, dental, and homoeopathy departments. “The committee submitted its report saying that the AD was not guilty of harassment,” he said.
When asked about Rashmita’s allegations that she was deliberately failed, he said, “It is unfair to say that she was made to fail. There is the possibility that she did not do well and is now using the complaint as an excuse to demand a reexamination.”
Ramaiah added that he wanted to resolve the matter amicably but Rashmita was unwilling.
Meanwhile, Rashmita said that an external inquiry was carried out by Sangareddy government hospital principal Dr Vani. An official from the hospital confirmed that Dr Vani was sent to MNR College by KNRUHS Vice Chancellor Karunakar Reddy. When contacted by TNM, both Reddy and Dr Vani were unwilling to comment on the issue.
“Dr Vani assured me that the enquiry report she submitted to the administration was in favour of the students,” added Rashmita.
In the meantime, the AD filed a complaint of his own with the Sangareddy police against male PG students who were also protesting against him, accusing them of attacking him. An FIR und,er Section 307 (Attempt to murder) of the IPC was registered.
Despite repeated attempts, the AD was unavailable for comment.