NEW DELHI: Stepping up their protests against St Stephen’s Principal Valson Thampu, students and teachers of Delhi University and women rights activists on Monday demanded his resignation over his handling of the research scholar molestation case.
Thampu said he would resign if it was proved that he was a cause of “embarrassment to the institution”.
Thampu claimed that the victim was “coached to plot him in the issue” and alleged that the ones pretending to be her helpers are the “handlers” of the controversy.
“If I am a cause of embarrassment to the institution and it is objectively proved, I will put in my papers that very moment,” Thampu said.
As the demand for his resignation grew shriller, Thampu claimed that he has been trapped on the issue deliberately. “The complainant has admitted that she has been recording the conversations with me from the very first day. It is understandable that someone tapes the conversation with another, after having experienced something fishy or hostile… In this case, the interaction began as a sting. This points very strongly to the possibility that doing the sting was the very purpose of her coming to me. Please note, I say the possibility, not certainty,” he said.
Thampu has been in controversies ever since he took over as college’s principal.