Over 11 police teams are looking for suspects in the Gargi College molestation case (File)
Highlights
- Gargi College students had alleged sexual assault during campus festival
- Gargi College authorities were also questioned in the matter
- A case was filed four days after the incident last Thursday
Two days after students of Delhi's Gargi College alleged sexual assault by over 30 men on campus during their annual cultural fest, police has arrested 10 people in the case today.
Over 11 police teams were investigating the technical details and looking for suspects all over the national capital. Multiple people have been questioned and many suspects identified. Gargi College authorities were also questioned in the matter.
Last Thursday, during the college fest "Reverie", a number of inebriated and unruly men forced into the all-girls college in south Delhi and chased the girls all over the campus, eyewitnesses said on social media. Students, teachers claimed the police and security guards did nothing to stop them. According to news agency IANS, the men were part of a pro-citizenship law rally.
A case was filed four days after the incident; students alleged the college administration turned them away.
A student, on condition of anonymity, recounted the horrific incident. The men assaulted women, chasing them all over the campus, she said. "I could see women, first-year students lying unconscious, unattended on the field. It was medical emergency as well," she added.
"The crowd was so massive that we couldn't move out. I was groped three times and I had to stay in for 40 minutes. When I did go out to an empty space... a man started masturbating at me. As soon as I escaped from that place a first-year student came to me running saying a group 5-6 men were cornering her," she said.
Amid massive outrage, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had said that his government would "not tolerate misbehaviour with our daughters" and demanding the "harshest possible" punishment for those responsible.
Mr Kejriwal who won the Delhi elections on Tuesday with a massive mandate had listed women's safety as one of his top priorities.
The arrests come after 100 students, furious over the "complete lapse of security" at one of the city's more prestigious institutions, took out a protest within the college campus on Monday and the National Commission for Women also sent a team to investigate the incident. Students have been boycotting classes, demanding that the fact finding committee constituted following the incident show its findings.