Delhi:
Controversies have regularly plagued this varsity. On Monday, a Jamia Milia University student staying at a girl's hostel near Batla House filed a police complaint alleging physical and mental assault by the hostel owner.
Halima Hashmi, a final year MA student, staying in the Sultanat Girls hostel for the last five years has complained that the owner threatened to push her into prostitution if she didn't leave the hostel.
Hashmi says things got ugly last Monday when she went for breakfast. On reaching the dining area she found some outsiders sitting there. When she asked for her breakfast, Hashmi says her request was denied and instead she was asked to pay the rent for the last ten months.
"I have been continuously paying the rent in cash. We are not given any receipts for the same. Now it is difficult for me to prove that I have paid the rent," she lamented.
The student alleged that the people there then started molesting her. "Somehow I managed to run to my room and locked it. The outsiders arrived there and started banging on the door. Looking at the situation, I called the police. I presented the case before the police and they were very helpful. I am not the only girl who is facing such trauma. Other girls staying in the hostel are facing similar problems but they are afraid to raise their voice."
In the police complaint, Hashmi claimed that she was being regularly tortured for the past few days just because she had asked the owner to clean the floor of her room. The owner declined to do so and instead asked her to vacate the hostel.
Now she says she is being regularly harassed by the hostel staff. "There are around 150 other girls staying with me and all of them are unhappy. My final exams are going on and I am unable to concentrate on my studies. Immediately leaving the hostel and going somewhere is also a problem."
Owner of the hostel Razia Sultana said, "All the allegations against me are false. I have never manhandled either Halima or any other girl staying in the hostel. All that I asked for was the monthly rent which she had not paid for the last 10 months. She never gives any information about herself. Her local guardian abandoned her in 2007. She keeps threatening the cooks and other staff of the hostel. She even dared to call three to four guys from outside and threaten them."
"We have also filed a police complaint against her at the Jamia Nagar police station after she twisted the arms of one of the caretakers. If she has so many problems, why doesn't she leave the hostel and go," added Sultana.
A senior police official said: "We are trying to solve the matter amicably. We have asked Hashmi to pay her rent by cheques so that there is some proof of payment. On her allegation that she was beaten up, we are still trying to find out the truth."