A deeper investigation into the incident is underway: C Nagarani (representative)
Visakhapatnam:
Andhra Pradesh police on Tuesday arrested five persons in connection with the death by suicide of a minor student, who had leveled allegations of sexual harassment against her college officials, an official said.
The 17-year-old girl ended her life by jumping from a building on the intervening night of March 28-29, claiming that some unidentified persons had threatened to post her objectionable photos on social media.
Police arrested five persons from Kommadi Chaitanya Polytechnic College in the port city. Those arrested were: N Shankar Rao, chemical laboratory technician, Shankar Varma, head of college management, G Bhanu Praveen, principal, V Usha Rani, hostel director and V Pradeep Kumar, husband of Rani.
Visakhapatnam North Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) B Sunil told PTI that initial investigation pointed to Rao as the person who allegedly sexually harassed the murdered student.
“Shankar Rao doesn’t admit it, but in our survey all the girls have pointed fingers at him. The girl’s close friends also said so. He will be questioned further,” Sunil said.
The arrested persons were booked under IPC Sections 305, 354 A, 354 C, 506, Section 12 of the POCSO Act and other sections under the Prohibition of Ragging Act.
The ACS noted that the five arrested individuals will appear before a judge on Wednesday.
Earlier, C Nagarani, director of technical education, Andhra Pradesh, said she has formed a committee to probe the incident and the report is awaited.
“A deeper investigation into the incident is underway with some persons being called to the police station on a daily basis,” C Nagarani told PTI.
According to C Nagarani, five of the student’s seven teachers were women and the remaining two were men, including the college principal and a technical drawing teacher.
She further said that the laboratory assistants were also questioned by the police.
The police have questioned the university management, the student’s friends, housemates, parents, regular contacts and suspects to uncover the truth. However, the ACS noted that the girl had not been raped.
He said the final post-mortem report is awaited.
In addition, officials noted that the private school student was a bit irregular, and are also considering an investigation into her psychological condition.
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