Bhuj: Four persons, including the principal of a Gujarat college where authorities allegedly forced over 60 girls to remove their undergarments to check if they were menstruating, were sent to two-day police custody on Monday.
The others sent to remand include the coordinator, supervisor and a lady peon of the institute.
The four accused were arrested by the police and produced in a court on Monday.
The college, located in Bhuj town of Gujarat's Kutch district, had suspended Rita Raninga, girls' hostel rector Ramilaben and college peon Naina on Saturday after police registered an FIR against them. Another woman, identified as Anita, who is not associated with the college, was also named as an accused in the FIR.
The accused have been booked under Indian Penal Code Sections 384 (extortion), 355 (assault with intent to dishonour a person) and 506 (criminal intimidation). No one has been arrested so far.
SSGI is a self-financed college, having its own girls' hostel. It is run by a trust of the Swaminarayan Temple, Bhuj. The college is affiliated to the Krantiguru Shyamji Krishna Verma Kutch University.
After the incident came to light, a seven-member team of the National Commission for Women (NCW) on Sunday met the girl students in the hostel, who were allegedly forced by the authorities to remove their undergarments to check if they were menstruating.
A student earlier told reporters that the incident took place on February 11 in the hostel, located on the campus of SSGI, which offers graduate and under-graduate courses.
She alleged that over 60 students were taken to the washroom by a woman staffer and made to remove their undergarments to check if they were menstruating.
After a probe, Darshana Dholakia, in-charge vice chancellor of the university to which the college is affiliated, had earlier said the girls were checked because the hostel has a rule that girls having periods are not supposed to take meals with other inmates.
The hostel authorities decided to check them after they came to know that some menstruating girls had broken the rule and taken the meal.
The police earlier said that a Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been formed, with woman police officials as its members, to probe the incident.
(With PTI inputs)
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