Stephen's molestation victim meets DCW chief

The St Stephen's research scholar who was allegedly molested by a college professor met the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) Chief Swati Maliwal today along with a delegation of women right activists.
The accused professor Satish Kumar and college principal Valson Thampu, who has been accused of shielding the guilty, are supposed to appear before the commission tomorrow.
"Today, the DCW entertained a delegation of women's rights activists and the affected PhD scholar so as to assess the situation of victimization of the complainant and the compromised nature of the college-level investigation into the matter," a statement issued by Centre for Struggling Women, a women rights' group, said.

"The anomalies in the sexual harassment laws at the university were also discussed and Maliwal agreed that the act needs to be revisited," it added.
Taking cognizance of the complaint submitted by the victim to DCW, the commission had last week issued summons to Thampu and accused professor.
The girl had approached police last month alleging that she was molested by Kumar, an assistant professor in the college's Chemistry department under whom she was pursuing research.

She had also accused Thampu of "shielding" the teacher when the matter was reported to him.
Former DCW chief Barkha Shukla Singh had also asked for an action taken report from Thampu, to which he had responded saying the "enquiry is underway".

The victim had also met Union HRD minister Smriti Irani last month, who had then directed the Delhi University to ensure that her stipend was released on time and she was granted unrestricted access to the laboratory besides being assigned a new supervisor.
However, not withstanding the instructions the accused professor had last week refused to give back the victim's compounds and computational data saying they are UGC's property and advised her not to "jump into any misadventure" and misuse the process of law.