COIMBATORE: Coimbatore district police registered a case on Friday two weeks after the students protested at Bharathiar University against a security lapse in the girl's hostel during the night. An FIR was officially registered roughly 17 days after the students' protest.
"Police who are quick to register even petty cases were slow here even when the safety of the girl students was in jeopardy," they alleged.
Even after we lodged a complaint stating that our belongings went missing, they(police) did not show any interest, said a student from the hostel.
Instead of registering an FIR, police said they will patrol outside the premises at night, the student said. "Security arrangements are said to have been strengthened. But every night we are in a nightmare. Wardens ask us not to open doors if anybody knocks at night. The situation will continue until police arrest the strangers who entered the hostel," said another student.
According to the students, the issue of strangers' intrusion during night hours and their theft attempts was brought to the knowledge of the University administration a month ago. When there was no proper response, they held a protest on March 31 in front of the university. The protest was withdrawn after they were assured that police will take care of the matter. But even after that, a complaint was not registered. Meanwhile, strangers have been coming inside the campus till last week.
The university registrar lodged one more complaint on April 10 complying with the video evidence and on Friday police registered a case.
According to the police report, University registrar K Murugavel (58) said in his complaint that an unidentified man on Sunday (April 10) early morning around 1.40 am entered the girl's hostel and broke open a window. "He attempted to steal a laptop. When one of the students threw a stick at him, the person escaped," police said.
We gave the first written complaint to the police on March 31 after which the police gave security assistance. We don't know why they took this much time to register the case," said University Vice-Chancellor P Kaliraj.
When asked, a police officer at Vadavalli station said they took the time to check the veracity of the complaint. "We are working to trace the stranger and monitoring the campus," said the officer, who did not want to be named.
University management said they have strengthened the security measures at their level best. "As many as 27 ex-servicemen and a few women security staff are deployed to strengthen the security across the campus. Two watchtowers have been set up to ease aerial view surveillance. Besides this, 18 CCTV have been provided to monitor the movements round the clock. Also, raise the compound wall to prevent wall jumping," said Kaliraj.
There are 1,279 students in 11 hostels, 5 of which are girls' hostels. Vasugi hostel, which is been at the edge of the campus, has been at the receiving end of this intrusion due to its proximity to a forest, said sources.