Hello all, after the forced resignation of the director and the registrar who have mentioned clearly in this report why they had to do it, i am here to keep you updated on a similar coup that happened within the student general body of SRFTI. The President of the student's body and the Assistant General Secretary were both people who did not encourage any kind of slandering of sexual harassment complainants. The coup that happened was a carefully planned one to overthrow these two members. One night, a general body meeting was convened on the terrace which the majority calls 'ragging terrace'. Not one notice was put up regarding this meeting and not all were informed. The president of the body himself was against convening a meeting in an undemocratic way. Nobody paid heed. What happened that night on the terrace from 11.30 at night to around 4 in the morning of the next day is what is called a public trial. The AGS was surrounded by 30-40 students and was questioned for all that while.
Another female complainant and i interrupted the meeting when we started hearing violent shouts from the terrace and went there to check what was happening. What was happening, like i said was a trial of a student by other students in a forced confinement state. The three of us, the first year student who is the AGS and us two complainants fought the mob. The mob unleashed violence on all three of us in packs. The terrace became three islands in which one of us stood, battling the violators. We tried to protect each other and failed miserably. Nobody slept that night or the nights after that. The audio clip is just a small portion of it starting with our interruption. Till that point the AGS was made to stand in a corner of the terrace and was repeatedly asked the same question and harassed by the mob. He was ridiculed and intimidated. Nobody spoke. Nobody asked anyone to stop till we came.
The audio has been edited from a 1.30 hour long clip. If you want the whole clip please carry your own recorders with you and record everything yourself. Come, let us listen to the modern forms of khap panchayats.
And yesterday, the interim student body which was again 'elected' in a completely undemocratic way, conducted their re-elections. Here is the list of the candidates.
You might think it is impossible, but it is not. The names i have marked in red are either people who were engaged in the violence you just heard or people who have serious allegations against them. I am going to explain all the cases one by one.
The student who was subjected to the public trial had registered a general diary at Panchassayar Police Station, Kolkata following this. This means that their names are not just on the candidates list, but also in police records. How come they are candidates if they are people on police records? Because if i/the student who filed the general diary had to object we would have to raise an objection to the very same people whose names have been registered in the complaint!
Anybody who wishes can check the truth of the statement at Panchassayar police station, Kolkata.
Another of the student who was one of the most active members of the trial has a history of having locked a girl in a male student's room just for the sake of sadistic/voyeuristic pleasure. This is not an isolated story in SRFTI. More than three girls have been locked inside rooms of male students with them being present sometimes. Some of them have been subjected to mockery from outside the room with all kinds of innuendos. Welcome to the world of (perverse) SRFTI.
Another student who stood the elections has the following allegations against him
1. He was subjected to a similar public trial for having assaulted two girl students.
Let me make myself clear that i am completely against such public trials held by students and i could not protest against this one when it happened because i got to know of it after it was done.
2. He has a written complaint filed against him by the residents of C Quarters of SRFTI because one night he was caught beating up his girlfriend in a room in the same building. He was shifted from the quarters to the girl's hostel for this reason. Don't ask me what kind of punishment it is. That's how SRFTI functions. It breeds women beaters and rapists.
3. He is the same person who is heard mocking the female complainant by expelling loud shrieks and laughter imitating her voice.
4. He is also the person who after yelling 'what the fuck' thrice when he was passing by me on his bike, went outside the gate and yelled 'behen ke laudi' at me thrice (i don't know what's with him and the number three) and said 'this happened outside the institute. Now what will you do?'.
All these can be verified through documents.
Another candidate was the leader of the group which went around their department collecting signatures saying 'Shyamal Sengupta is a great teacher, we want him back, he has never done anything wrong to any of us' or something to that effect. Shyamal Sengupta is but of course one of the professors who was proven guilty (then accused) of sexual harassment. As a result of this the identity of the student who had complained against the professor got revealed. The girl herself had made a complaint with the ICC regarding the same incident and therefore, is again a documented piece of evidence.
Some of my friends told me yesterday that they had decided to carry pepper sprays with them in all such general body meetings. I fought with them saying i didn't believe in pepper spray. They laughed and got angry saying i would say the same even when i was dead. I don't care about myself because i have no mouths to feed. But it may not be so for many in SRFTI. So i am asking all of you all with an opinion to carry pepper spray with you if you don't want people inflicting their violence upon you.
I don't think i need to explain why i boycotted the elections yesterday anymore.
Thanks.
Comic Relief:
One of the harassers is an active supporter of Shubhadra Chowdhury, another professor who was found guilty of sexual harassment. When the student was getting harassed by the professor fan, he retorted saying that he was doing all that because 'his father was kicked out of the institute'. He was referring to the professor who is like a (decadent) father figure to most of his fans. Ever since that the fan never stopped saying that his father never went to the institute. I had missed the retort by the student and therefore had no idea what the man was talking about.
Another female complainant and i interrupted the meeting when we started hearing violent shouts from the terrace and went there to check what was happening. What was happening, like i said was a trial of a student by other students in a forced confinement state. The three of us, the first year student who is the AGS and us two complainants fought the mob. The mob unleashed violence on all three of us in packs. The terrace became three islands in which one of us stood, battling the violators. We tried to protect each other and failed miserably. Nobody slept that night or the nights after that. The audio clip is just a small portion of it starting with our interruption. Till that point the AGS was made to stand in a corner of the terrace and was repeatedly asked the same question and harassed by the mob. He was ridiculed and intimidated. Nobody spoke. Nobody asked anyone to stop till we came.
The audio has been edited from a 1.30 hour long clip. If you want the whole clip please carry your own recorders with you and record everything yourself. Come, let us listen to the modern forms of khap panchayats.
And yesterday, the interim student body which was again 'elected' in a completely undemocratic way, conducted their re-elections. Here is the list of the candidates.
You might think it is impossible, but it is not. The names i have marked in red are either people who were engaged in the violence you just heard or people who have serious allegations against them. I am going to explain all the cases one by one.
The student who was subjected to the public trial had registered a general diary at Panchassayar Police Station, Kolkata following this. This means that their names are not just on the candidates list, but also in police records. How come they are candidates if they are people on police records? Because if i/the student who filed the general diary had to object we would have to raise an objection to the very same people whose names have been registered in the complaint!
Anybody who wishes can check the truth of the statement at Panchassayar police station, Kolkata.
Another of the student who was one of the most active members of the trial has a history of having locked a girl in a male student's room just for the sake of sadistic/voyeuristic pleasure. This is not an isolated story in SRFTI. More than three girls have been locked inside rooms of male students with them being present sometimes. Some of them have been subjected to mockery from outside the room with all kinds of innuendos. Welcome to the world of (perverse) SRFTI.
Another student who stood the elections has the following allegations against him
1. He was subjected to a similar public trial for having assaulted two girl students.
Let me make myself clear that i am completely against such public trials held by students and i could not protest against this one when it happened because i got to know of it after it was done.
2. He has a written complaint filed against him by the residents of C Quarters of SRFTI because one night he was caught beating up his girlfriend in a room in the same building. He was shifted from the quarters to the girl's hostel for this reason. Don't ask me what kind of punishment it is. That's how SRFTI functions. It breeds women beaters and rapists.
3. He is the same person who is heard mocking the female complainant by expelling loud shrieks and laughter imitating her voice.
4. He is also the person who after yelling 'what the fuck' thrice when he was passing by me on his bike, went outside the gate and yelled 'behen ke laudi' at me thrice (i don't know what's with him and the number three) and said 'this happened outside the institute. Now what will you do?'.
All these can be verified through documents.
Another candidate was the leader of the group which went around their department collecting signatures saying 'Shyamal Sengupta is a great teacher, we want him back, he has never done anything wrong to any of us' or something to that effect. Shyamal Sengupta is but of course one of the professors who was proven guilty (then accused) of sexual harassment. As a result of this the identity of the student who had complained against the professor got revealed. The girl herself had made a complaint with the ICC regarding the same incident and therefore, is again a documented piece of evidence.
Some of my friends told me yesterday that they had decided to carry pepper sprays with them in all such general body meetings. I fought with them saying i didn't believe in pepper spray. They laughed and got angry saying i would say the same even when i was dead. I don't care about myself because i have no mouths to feed. But it may not be so for many in SRFTI. So i am asking all of you all with an opinion to carry pepper spray with you if you don't want people inflicting their violence upon you.
I don't think i need to explain why i boycotted the elections yesterday anymore.
Thanks.
Comic Relief:
One of the harassers is an active supporter of Shubhadra Chowdhury, another professor who was found guilty of sexual harassment. When the student was getting harassed by the professor fan, he retorted saying that he was doing all that because 'his father was kicked out of the institute'. He was referring to the professor who is like a (decadent) father figure to most of his fans. Ever since that the fan never stopped saying that his father never went to the institute. I had missed the retort by the student and therefore had no idea what the man was talking about.
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