VB row: Probe team leaves Bolpur

Someswar Boral,TNN | Sep 8, 2014, SANTINIKETAN: The two-member University Grants Commission (UGC) fact-finding team that reached Santiniketan on Saturday left on Sunday after collecting required documents and evidences. Though the members spoke to the three accused students, they couldn't talk to the girl and her father.

The girl had earlier alleged that three classmates 'sexually harassed' her and clicked an obscene MMS with their mobile phones to blackmail her.

The two-member fact-finding team comprised Mihir Kanti Chaudhuri, the vice-chancellor of Tejpur University, and Ratnabali Banerjee, a joint secretary of UGC.

On Sunday, the two members went to Bolpur subdivisional correctional home and spent twenty minutes there to interrogate the three accused. An official of the correctional home said, "They were granted one-and-a-half hours for interrogation by the Bolpur court."

The father of the girl had earlier alleged that he was threatened with dire consequences by a member of the UGC appointed committee at Burdwan Medical College and Hospital when they had gone there on Saturday evening. The father had alleged, "After reaching the Burdwan hospital around 6.30 pm on Saturday, the duo wanted to speak to my daughter. I told them to have a word with me since my daughter was yet to recover from the trauma. Suddenly, Chaudhuri said: 'Mai apko dekh lunga (I'll see you). Apko bhugatna parega' (You will have to suffer). Then they left from the spot."

Chaudhuri on Sunday denied the charges and told the media persons, "Do you believe this? It is up to your discretion. One can raise these allegations. But, it doesn't mean that all these are true. It's fabricated. No such conversation took place in between me and that man."