Kolkata:

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has revoked the suspension of veteran party leader and former MLA Tanmoy Bhattacharya, who was accused of sexual harassment by a woman journalist associated with an independent YouTube news channel in October this year.

The announcement was made through a WhatsApp message circulated by district secretary Mrinal Chakraborty in the North 24 Parganas district committee of the CPI-M. The message claimed that henceforth Bhattacharya will be able to participate in the organisational affairs of the party as he had been doing before.

After the lady reporter on Facebook accused Mr Bhattacharya of making “sexually inappropriate” behavior with her while she went to his residence to interview him in October this year, the state committee of the CPI-M suspended him the same day and also initiated an internal probe against him by the party’s internal complaints committee.

Later based on the FIR filed by the lady reporter at Baranagar Police Station, Mr Bhattacharya was summoned by the cops several times for questioning. However, no coercive action was initiated against him by the police administration.

Confirming that the decision to revoke the suspension has come to his notice, Bhattacharya said on Saturday that whatever he has to say in the matter he would do that only in the internal meetings of the party.

Mr Bhattacharya had been vehemently denying the accusation of sexual harassment. He has also claimed that the charges of ‘sexual harassment against him was a “well-planned plot” to malign his image.

“I am a communist and will continue to remain so till my last breadth. If I am proven innocent I will continue as a CPI-M activist. If I am held guilty by my party and expelled, I will remain a communist till my last day. Even if I cannot continue as a CPI-M activist, I will continue as a communist,” Mr Bhattacharya had said earlier.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Guwahati:

A ward boy at a private hospital in Assam’s Guwahati has been arrested for alleged sexual harassment of a minor patient inside the Intensive Care Unit. The 40-year-old has been charged under the provisions of the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act.

According to reports, the ward boy at the Metro Hospital had allegedly tried to touch her “badly”, the 11-year-old patient has alleged.

The incident took place inside the ICU complex, the police complaint had added.

The police are investigating the case. The ward boy has been booked under Section 12 of the POCSO Act.

Bengaluru:

The Congress party in Karnataka expelled State General Secretary Gurappa Naidu on Saturday following charges of sexual harassment surfacing against him.

The Disciplinary Committee Chairman of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) K. Rahman Khan issued an order to expel Gurappa Naidu from the party.

“In the backdrop of lodging of sexual harassment case against State General Secretary Gurappa Naidu, he has been expelled from the primary membership of the party for six years,” the order stated.

Karnataka police had slapped an FIR against the State Congress office bearer over alleged charges of sexually harassing a teacher at a school run by him in Bengaluru on Thursday. The complaint is registered with Chennammanakere Achukattu police station against Gurappa Naidu, the state Congress General Secretary and also the Chairman of the BGS Bloom School.

The police had registered a case under IPC Sections 354 (a) (sexual harassment), 354 (assault or criminal force against a woman with the intent to outrage her modesty), 506 (criminal intimidation), 504 (intentional insults that provoke a breach of the peace) and 509 (acts, words, or gestures that insult a woman’s modesty). These incidents are said to have occurred between 2021 and 2023.

In her statement to the police, the survivor stated, “Accused Gurappa Naidu sexually exploited gullible women staffers at his school. He has been using them and also raping them. He is video-recording these acts and blackmailing them.”

A teacher told the police that she worked at the school run by the accused and more than 75 per cent of the staff are women and came from middle and poor classes. Many of their children also studied at the same school.

In her complaint, the survivor said, “The accused Gurappa Naidu is a womaniser who pesters women and won’t spare anyone. Everyone in the school fears him and he uses women as per his wishes.”

“The accused makes vulgar and nude videos of women and blackmails them. He threatens them that if they don’t do exactly how he says, their videos would be made viral. He also threatens women staffers if they dared to file a police complaint,” the survivor stated.

The survivor further mentioned, “Gurappa Naidu has exploited many women staffers belonging to the poor and weaker sections. They are not able to bear the trauma and are forced to live in fear. Though the wanted to file a complaint against him, considering his clout and fearing backlash from families, they decided not to file the police complaint.”

“I have worked in the school for three years. The accused used to call me into his chamber and repeatedly asked me when I was going to get ready. He used to stare at me causing mental trauma,” she stated.

“Gurappa Naidu’s behaviour was vulgar. He used dirty language and dragged me to his chamber. When I told him not to indulge in such acts with me, he got wild and stated that everyone is cooperating with him and I am not listening to him even after showering much love,” the survivor stated.

“Gurappa Naidu maintained that I won’t change and asked me whether I was born to a single father and abused me. I started crying and I rushed to my home in tears from the school premises,” the survivor added.

“After seeing me in tears, my mother questioned me and I shared the trauma. She asked me not to go to work there. I am feeling threatened and fearful after the incident. It took months together for me to come to normalcy. I used to get reminded of traumatic experiences. I was thinking that even as many teachers and staff are exploited, no one is coming forward to file the complaint,” she said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Chennai:

The Thoothukudi police in Tamil Nadu have arrested a physical education teacher at a private school for allegedly harassing girl students sexually and forcing them to take liquor. 

Investigators say this had happened on October 22nd and 23 when he had taken the children to participate in the District Sports Meet in Thoothukudi. The school had made private arrangements for accommodation and the teacher had allegedly violated the girls there.

Investigation is underway and the police have invoked POCSO Act. They have also booked the school for not informing the police on their own. 

A senior police officer told NDTV, “We have received complaints from two students so far”. He added that the school “did not send any woman staff to accompany the girl children”.

The issue came to light only after parents held protests at the school. 

In August, a schoolgirl was sexually assaulted and at least 12 others were sexually abused at a fake NCC camp at a private school in the Krishnagiri district of Tamil Nadu.
 

Kolkata:

A woman journalist has alleged that she has been sexually harassed by a CPM leader when  she had gone to interview him. It occurred when she had gone to the house of Tanmoy Bhattacharya for an interview, she said.

Narrating the event on a Facebook live session, she said the CPM leader had sat on her lap on the pretext of sitting down for the interview. 

“I had faced harassment at Bhattacharya’s house earlier also… He has a tendency to touch people. He would touch my hand,” she said but added that she had not complained about it fearing repercussions. 

“But what happened this time was too much,” she said. 

Tanmoy Bhattacharya, she added, had taken advantage when her cameraperson was trying to set up a frame for the interview and was asking him to sit at a certain spot.

“He said where will I sit and came and sat down on my lap,” she said, visibly shaking while recounting the experience.

“I am not sure whether the CPM will take action… But I have understood that this has nothing to with political colour. There are some people who are like this. It is their problem at a personal level,” she said.

A complaint has been filed at the Baranagar police station about the incident, which coms on the heels of the horrific rape-murder of a young doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College that had stirred up the state and spread ripples across the country. 

It led to largescale protests, ceasework and even an indefinite hunger strike  by junior doctors that was fully backed by the civil society and the opposition parties. 

The CPM has said that Tanmoy Bhattacharya will be suspended and the party will conduct an internal inquiry.

Itanagar:

A government school headmaster was arrested in Arunachal Pradesh on Thursday for allegedly sexually harassing students. Muhammad Asgar Ali, headmaster of Government Secondary School (GSS) in Gautampur was arrested after a joint complaint by students alleging mental harassment, implied or explicit threats, blackmail, and sexually coloured remarks.

On October 2, the police received the complaint in which students described repeated inappropriate behaviour and sexually coloured remarks made by Mr Ali and the impact on them. The headmaster’s conduct had caused them “immense distress, frustration, sleeplessness, powerlessness, anxiety and forcing us to lose confidence and self-esteem, social withdrawal and isolation, suicidal thoughts and attempts, increased absenteeism from school to avoid harassment, ” the students said in the complaint.

A Class 7 student was allegedly called by Mr Ali to clean his room in exchange for financial aid and the promise of a mobile phone.

A Class 10 student allegedly received messages like “I love you”, “Poranna” (meaning lover), and “I miss you”. “He called me at midnight, pressured me to visit his room, and even held my hand one day, trying to force me to go to his room. He threatened to fail me if I did not comply,” the student said.

The headmaster has also been accused of using derogatory language during school hours – in class and morning assembly – and passing communal slurs.

“We are investigating the matter. We arrested the headmaster (I/C) of the school. We have also taken the statements of the victim students. Further investigation is underway,” Changlang district Superintendent of Police Kirli Padu told ANI.

Kollam (Kerala):

The police on Thursday released renowned film director VK Prakash on bail, following a Kerala High Court order that granted him anticipatory bail in a sexual harassment case.

Officials at Pallithottam police station said that Prakash was interrogated for two days. Subsequently, he was granted bail on the third day, in accordance with the High Court’s directions outlined in the bail order.

“We interrogated him for the last two days and also on the third day. We then granted him bail, as directed by the High Court,” a police officer told PTI.

A woman scriptwriter had accused Prakash of sexually harassing her in April 2022, when she approached him to narrate a possible movie script.

She made these revelations after the Justice K Hema Committee report was released that studied the problems women face in the Malayalam film industry.

Prakash, however, has denied these allegations and claimed that he was falsely implicated in the case after he told the woman that her story was not fit to be made into a film.

He also accused the woman of blackmailing his friends, raising similar charges and alleged that the woman had made sexual advances at him, even sending him WhatsApp messages with sexual undertones.

The Kerala High Court, while granting anticipatory bail to Prakash, had observed that a custodial interrogation is not required as the accused is willing to abide by any stringent conditions imposed by the court and to cooperate with the investigating officer.

However, the court directed that before releasing him on bail, the investigating officer should interrogate him for three days, between 9 am and 2 pm and subject him to a medical examination, if necessary. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

I’ll be 39 in exactly ten days. I’m a mother of two daughters—21 and 15. I have all the privileges that you can count—caste, class, religion, skin colour, education, everything. My LinkedIn profile is for everyone to see and assess my professional standing. I have been writing books, book chapters, journal papers, issue briefs, policy papers, media commentaries, poetry, and even extended social media posts on gender equity, violence against women, women’s health, etc, for the past 18 years. 

Yet, I’m utterly helpless, and I don’t know when this will stop. The screenshots are self-explanatory. 

Predictably, this sexual harassment started innocuously with a LinkedIn connection request from a man named Tulsi Kumar and my polite response to a “thank you for adding me” message in May 2024. Then came a barrage of unsolicited DMs on LinkedIn, ostensibly for professional work. I ignored it all. (Us women, we get by with ignoring a lot.)

Making Women Invisible

And on the morning of 10 September, I woke up to the same old sexually charged bullshit. This man also found my Instagram earlier yesterday and left likes and comments there. I’ve had a policy of keeping my social accounts open because that’s who I am as a person—transparency, etc. 

The screenshots clearly reveal that this behaviour was entirely unprovoked, far from being impulsive, almost premeditated. And that apology? It’s as if “liking” me “too much” mandates this behaviour. I made him do it. 

What is it about men? Why must they act like subhumans almost every time? Women are made to watch over their shoulders even more in digital space.  I have written multiple times about the intellectual moorings of this trend of making women invisible by either blocking women’s entry to, or bullying them out of public spaces. It is clear that men have a problem with women in general. But the world is, generally, comfortable with it. The only problem is with women highlighting this problem that men have a problem with women. Families, establishments, technocrats, editors—all act in unison to tackle that problem.

A Daily Dose Of Hatred

“Not all men” tribe, please sit down. Unless you wake up to such crudeness and sexual harassment from random stranger women even in your professional account’s inbox routinely, don’t even think of making your case. This tribe has made it almost impossible for women to express their frustrations with this daily dose of hatred hurled at them. This hatred has many forms, and what I received in my inbox is nothing but garden-variety sexual entitlement. It’s so common, happening day after day, inbox after inbox, that our senses ought to be numb towards it. But are they?

What’s even more frustrating—almost criminal—however, is that LinkedIn doesn’t even give an option for reporting harassment on its platform when you proceed to block and report someone. The reportage mechanism doesn’t even consider sexual harassment. Digital safety, oh joy! Is LinkedIn unaware of such incidents? Its jargon-heavy proclamations on members’ safety are almost laughable when there’s not even a mention of harassment faced by women. “How our content abuse defence systems work to keep members safe” — No, whatever your systems are, they have failed miserably in keeping your members safe.

Digital Safety And Censorship

The problem with the discourse on digital safety, mirroring physical safety, is that it is vitiated by censorship. The urge to curb and ban free speech is the default one for all digital safety purposes. Add to this mix the malafide political digital activity and let’s bid adieu to any real progress on making social media platforms safe. Women are the easiest victims to ignore everywhere, and digital space is no exception. 

Such is the psycho-social impact of not taking women seriously—socio-culturally, politically, economically, and at policy levels—that women themselves tend to believe in their second-class status. “What is the point?” Nothing screams despair louder than these four words. We are almost convinced that we do not matter. How does one even complain when the problem is not even recognised systemically? LinkedIn reporting process exemplifies it.  The platform’s social media help team reached out to me only after I made a public post. They bombarded me with links to file a complaint. I’ve done it. I’ve also been trying to lodge an FIR on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal, but it is glitching. The process is a punishment for the victim long before the culprit is even located.

Nobody Likes A Woman With A Voice

I once wrote a paper on how the Hellenistic division of oikos (private space) and polis (public space) doesn’t apply to women. Their oikos is also polis because they are denied a voice even in the oikos. This latest incident of sexual harassment is aimed precisely at that—breaking women from within when and where they expect it the least. We don’t want a woman with a voice, so we’ll weaponise her voice against her. I’ve only chosen to write about this incident and not all the others in the past just to assert one thing. 

Yes, we women are growing tired of resisting and revolting.
No, we won’t stop it just yet. Try breaking us some more. 

 (Nishtha Gautam is a Delhi-based author and academic.)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author

New Delhi:

The #MeToo movement across the Malayalam film industry has created waves across the country with several young actors now speaking out about the abuse they faced at the hands of veteran directors, producers, and actors. Film director Ranjith now facing serious allegations of sexual misconduct, with two separate cases filed against him. The latest complaint has been lodged by a young actor who alleges he was sexually abused by Ranjith in 2012.

According to the complaint filed with the Kochi police, the victim was lured to a hotel in Bengaluru under the pretext of an audition. Ranjith allegedly forced the victim to strip and assaulted him, promising prominent roles in exchange. The victim claimed he believed it was part of the audition process and was even offered money the next morning.

This is the second case of sexual allegations against Ranjith. Earlier, a Bengali actor had filed a complaint against him, alleging sexual assault. The Kochi police have registered an FIR in connection with her complaint, which alleges that she was assaulted in a hotel in Kochi.

Ranjith denied the accusations, explaining that Mitra was called for an audition for the movie ‘Paleri Manikyam’, but he decided that she was not suitable for the role and sent her back.

Amid mounting pressure on the government, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday announced the establishment of a seven-member special investigation team for the probe into the allegations made in the wake of the Hema Committee report being published.

Ranjith, who was the Chairman of the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy, quit the post on Sunday after tremendous pressure was put on the Pinarayi Vijayan government by the Opposition parties and the media had a field day ever since the Hema Committee report which was made public recently, exposing “rampant sexual abuse” in the Malayalam film industry.

New Delhi:

Three weeks after his daughter, a student of the National Institute of Fashion Technology died by suicide in Bhubaneswar, a Delhi man is still searching for answers. The distraught father has alleged the 22-year-old had said in her suicide note that she was drugged and sexually harassed at a party.

The 4th-year NIFT student (names withheld) was found dead at her rented accommodation in Bhubaneswar, which she shared with some other students of the college. She was found hanging from a ceiling fan by her neighbour, a fellow NIFT student, and her mother, who broke down the door after she did not respond when they rang the doorbell or called her on her phone repeatedly.

The student’s father has said the police registered a case of abetment to suicide only on May 4, after he flew down to Bhubaneswar. He has also filed a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission.

He alleged that, in her suicide note, his daughter had said she was drugged and sexually harassed at a party by a man, which had made her turn to drugs and alcohol to cope with the traumatic incident. She had also written that she felt out of place in the fashion world and was unable to deal with the pressure.

Her flatmates said they did not know about any such incident but said she had been under stress, which they had chalked up to the anxiety of getting placements.

The institute’s authorities refused to comment, but sources said a committee has been formed to probe the reasons behind her death.

“NIFT allows no parties inside the campus in which alcohol is served. We don’t know what happened outside the campus,” said a source.

“I cannot bring back my daughter, but I want to ensure that she gets justice. I want to make sure nothing like this ever happens to any student studying in NIFT,” he added.