LUCKNOW: In a latest string of incidents of sexual harassment and many other anti-social activities cropping up in the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) two students have been arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a 32-year-old male doctor.
As per police sources, two final year students – Shriman Narain Shukla and Suraj Dubey-- students are among the three accused in the case. The police are looking for the third person and two more local youngsters who were allegedly present at the sight of the incident.
The incident had taken place on January 11 but the victim lodged a police complaint on February 4 following which an FIR was registered.
As per the sources, the accused and the victim had allegedly come in contact through an app predominantly used by the LGBTQIA community in December 2023.
The doctor claimed that he was called by one of the accused claiming of a medical emergency and that his roommate’s condition was deteriorating.
When the doctor rushed to the university, he was allegedly led to a hostel room wherein four people were already present. The doctor was not only stripped and subjected to unnatural sex but was also robbed by them.
The accused allegedly took away his gold ornaments, including a ring and a chain.
The victim claimed that the accused even recorded the entire incident and threatened to upload the footage on social media. After the incident, the accused frequently blackmailed the doctor with the footage and extorted money, read the complaint.
The accused were tracked through the surveillance of their bank accounts to which the victim used to send money through online transaction, said the police authorities.
Varanasi Deputy Commissioner of Police RS Gautam said that after their arrest, both accused confessed to the crime.
"They even wept and pleaded for mercy promising the police authorities of not committing the crime ever again. They pleaded for their future," said the police official.
During interrogation, the accused allegedly also revealed that they had assaulted four other doctors and a businessman in the past. “However, no other victim has come forward so far,” the officer added.
A gold chain and a ring, looted by the accused from the doctor, were recovered by the police but the cash, to the tune of Rs 60,000, extorted by them from the victim could not be recovered as the accused had spent the money, added the official.
The police have now decided to invoke the Uttar Pradesh Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act against the accused who have been booked under Sections 377 (unnatural offences), 347 (wrongful confinement to extort property or constrain to an illegal act), 384 (extortion), 394 (voluntarily causing hurt in committing robbery), and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code, the police said.
Meanwhile, BHU Chief Proctor Prof Shiv Prakash Singh has sought the report from the Dean of Faculty over the incident. The Chief Proctor said that the university would take action against the accused students on the basis of the Dean’s report and the university norms.