Balasore: Days after a 20-year-old college student died by suicide after allegations of sexual harassment, a new development emerged in the case. According to a report by India Today, a letter signed by 71 students seeking the victim's suspension was submitted to the principal of Fakir Mohan College on July 1, raising serious questions about attempts to protect the accused and vilify the victim.
The letter, reportedly organised under the influence of the arrested professor Sameer Ranjan Sahoo, branded the young woman’s accusations as false and called for punitive action against both her and those supporting her. It also urged a ban on all student organisations inside the campus until the inquiry concluded.
Sameer Ranjan Sahoo, who headed the Integrated B.Ed department, has been arrested along with the principal. Sources quoted by India Today, suggested that the suspension letter was part of a wider effort to discredit the victim and suppress her complaint.
A close friend of the deceased told the publication that political student wings aligned with both the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and the Congress (NSUI) played an active role in silencing her. “They tried to isolate her, shame her online, and create a campus atmosphere where she felt completely abandoned,” the friend alleged.
The toxic mix of peer pressure, institutional failure, and political interference, she said, led the young woman to take the extreme step of self-immolation.
College Pressured Her to Withdraw Complaint, Say Family
The victim, a second-year student, had repeatedly approached college authorities alleging sexual harassment. On July 12, she set herself ablaze after her pleas went unheeded. She died at AIIMS Bhubaneswar on Monday with 95% burn injuries.
The family has claimed in the FIR that the principal coerced her to retract her complaint and even told her she would be “driven to suicide” if she refused. A video now circulating shows her seated in the principal’s office, presumably to lodge that very complaint, a complaint that, it appears, was never meant to be taken seriously.
