Friend spiked drink & raped me: Girl on Facebook... A student at Jadavpur University has alleged rape by a classmate of four years on March 11 after he reportedly spiked her drink on the campus",

TNN, 10 May 2019, KOLKATA: A student at Jadavpur University has alleged rape by a classmate of four years on March 11 after he reportedly spiked her drink on the campus.

Given the immense pain and mental trauma she underwent, she reportedly could not muster the courage to pursue the matter legally as she felt it would have “transpired into a never ending Kafkaesque labyrinth leading up to more mental trauma” but finally, on Thursday, she wrote about her ordeal on  Facebook.

She said she decided to pen down her plight after “seeing many brave people speak up” about their torment. “It was the 11th of March, the foundation day of the university. (The accused), my classmate of 4 years and a person I considered to be a " friend", and I were drinking in the campus. This wasn’t the first time I was drinking, and I have high alcohol tolerance, never in the past have I passed out from drinking. But this time, I did, which makes it all the more curious. In all probability, he had spiked my drink,” she posted on Facebook. She goes on to write how the driver of a taxi she was in woke her up after she reached home and the next morning, she felt pain and discomfort in several parts of her body. But, she wrote, she had no recollection of anything. She also found certain parts of her clothes torn and noticed blood marks and scratches on her arms and other parts. She called up the person, who gradually admitted to it, she said. 

Several professors and students at JU have shared her post, expressing solidarity. “Academic institutions are responsible for protecting students from sexual abuse but they have failed to respond to the crisis. It’s time to open the process of victims reporting assaults to more neutral organisations,” said a JU professor. 

Snehamanju Basu, registrar at the university, however, said, “I’ve received no complaint yet.” An officer at the Jadavpur police station said no complaint had yet been registered. “If the girl approaches us, we will extend every help possible,” he said. 

The JU girl’s post came a week after an undergraduate student at Presidency University wrote on Facebook, alleging sexual harassment by a senior from a different department 10 months ago. She said she did not report the incident “as the senior was politically active”. 

Several professors at different universities and colleges, where such allegations have surfaced in the past few weeks, said institutions needed an independent body for processing reports and allegations of sexual assault that is dedicated to ensuring “integrity, fairness, and independence” of the victim. Educationists pointed out that though such incidents had had taken place on campuses even earlier, more and more victims were now sharing their ordeals, thanks to multiple factors, such as support from family and peer groups, reach of the social media and stringent disciplinary measures taken by institutes against the accused. 

Sociologists said such incidents, on and off campuses, were likely to adversely impact the liberal atmosphere some institutions provided to their students and dent mutual trust. “Several universities and colleges provide a liberal space to their students, and it is completely based on trust. A greater mingling of the two sexes are encouraged. But sexual harassment and rape will adversely impact such campuses,” said sociologist Gargi Mukherjee.