BENGALURU: The students and staff at Maharani’s College for Women heaved a sigh of relief on Saturday as police vacated the canteen inside the college campus run by Navin Kumar. He was accused of harassing students. Police officers vacated the canteen and took Navin’s parents into custody. “During the search, we found alcohol bottles inside the canteen where he and his family used to live,” said a senior police officer. Meanwhile, the police even questioned his parents about the supply of drugs and other illegal activities.
Recently, over 45 students from the college filed complaints before the state Women’s Commission against Navin — who claimed to be an RTI activist. He had allegedly harassed them by clicking their pictures, video recording their movements on his phone and also by roaming around the girls hostel in the campus during the night. Following the complaint, chairperson of the commission Nagalakshmi Bai visited the campus, met students and verified CCTV footage. As the complaints made by students proved to be true and were recorded on the CCTV camera, she ordered an inquiry and also directed police officers to initiate action.
Earlier, when college authorities approached the police, there was no action initiated. Following this, students had approached the commission. “We were literally living in fear and are thankful to the Women’s Commission chief for initiating action based on our complaints. We hope he doesn’t enter the campus again,” said one of the students. As per the information, the tender for canteen was given to someone else and Navin Kumar had forcefully taken over the canteen and sent the real owner out of the campus.