Varsity’s assistant sports director in police custody for alleged improper advances at a woman football referee
By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Nov 21: The NEHU Teachers’ Association (NEHUTA) on Tuesday demanded fast-tracking the probe against arrested assistant sports director of NEHU, Nantu Das.
Das, currently in police custody, was arrested for allegedly molesting a woman football referee.
NEHUTA president, Lakhon Kma said such “predators” cannot return to service and spoil the environment further.
“If due process is not followed as demanded by a large number of conscientious bodies and social groups, the Vice Chancellor (Prof Prabha Shankar Shukla) will be considered as playing truant to support the wrongdoer,” Kma said.
“In a matter that concerns the safety of a large number of students, especially women students, teachers and members of society who deal with NEHU, any slack approach shall have massive backlash impinging upon the very name of the Vice Chancellor,” Kma said.
He said they are dismayed by the act of Das, whose “criminal act of molestation, abuse and attempted rape only brings sheer consternation and condemnation for the perpetrator.”
NEHUTA felt Das is a serial offender, as testimony from some other women participants revealed a pattern in his sexual misdemeanour as he took the opportunity of women’s sporting events as the ground for his “predatory” activity.
“It is deeply disconcerting to note that victims are often blamed and silenced under the regressive and unfriendly atmosphere of misogynist work and sporting environment even in a Central University like NEHU. Ensconced in a matrilineal setting, various Departments/Centres and functionalities of the university have seen repeated violation of women’s dignity and modesty by individuals who represented a fringe of NEHU community engaged in various kinds of abuse of the other gender. NEHU cannot afford to show antipathy towards gender sensitivity and equality,” Kma said.
He stressed on a concerted programme for gender sensitisation, prevention of sexual violence and misconduct. Characters like Das thrive in an atmosphere of lack of stringent punishment or deterrence to the perpetrators and consequent acquisition of traits like gender abuse in their public disposition, he said.
The NEHUTA president also said that several such incidents of “abuse thrown at women students” allegedly by the accused predestined a build-up of a “maniac who only can plan such a dereliction of all morality and gender norms to satisfy his instincts.”
“We are worried that the University failed to prevent such predatory activity time and again and this time, by the security-in-charge himself and (it) puts a question mark on the wellbeing of women in a university where women occupy more than half the sky in terms of enrolment and participation in various programmes and activities,” Kma said.
He said since the era of Prof SK Srivastava, a gloom of “predatoriness by fringe elements”, who abuse their official powers to perpetrate explicit and implicit sexual/gender offences, have been on the rise and the “present dispensation has put its act together to perform better than the previous regime in terms of women security in the campuses.”
“We urge the VC to bring to book a sexual offender who cannot go unpunished and unaccounted. Before things go awry, it is the duty of all concerned and more so of the Vice Chancellor to keep the university campuses safe from such predators…” Kma said.
Meanwhile, NEHUSU said it has received numerous complaints of sexual offence against Das.
NEHUSU finance secretary, Mandor Diengdoh Swer said upon examination of the complaints, NEHUSU found that the accused indulged in multiple instances of sexual misconduct where the victims have been struck with fear in disclosing their identity to the public eye.
He said after the latest incident, reports were received from students, especially research scholars, who alleged their guides are indulging in “such shameful acts.”
Further, Swer said these “appalling conditions” are a proof that moral policing mechanisms like hostel curfew, evening security patrolling etc have proven to be ineffective as the same led to further desertion of university streets in the evening which makes it unsafe for students to stroll.
He also said that there is an urgent need for gender sensitisation in the campus of students, faculty members and staff.
According to him, other cases of sexual misconduct are bound to come up in the public domain in the coming days as the students are becoming more and more empowered due to the support and solidarity shown to them by the student community and the Union.