3 held for molesting engineering student who attempted suicide

Rattled by the suicide bid of a 19-year-old engineering student who had alleged molestation by her batchmate, the police have arrested three students even as her college suspended its principal.

On a day, the student attempted suicide by drinking a mosquito repellent in her room in the city yesterday, police arrested main accused Mehul Thakare (21) and two other students Shubham Burade (23) and Piyush Bhannare (20) under various sections of the IPC, an official said today.

The trio were produced before a court which granted them bail.

The victim student, who hails from Bhandara, is still recovering in the district general here.
 

She had lodged a complaint with Nandgaon Peth police station on January 26 stating that she was molested twice by Thakare during their college picnic in Chennai last month.

Following her complaint, police had booked Thakare, Burade, and Bhannare under sections 354-D (Stalking) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the IPC.

Meanwhile, Dilip Nimbhorkar, Vice President of the PR Pote (Patil) Education and Welfare Trust, which runs the college, said the management suspended Principal Sanjay Deshmukh on January 27.

He said the principal and accompanying teachers kept the management in the dark about the alleged molestation incident.

A committee has been constituted at college level to probe the case, he said.

The student yesterday drank a mosquito repellent in her room here, apparently upset over the college authorities as well as the local police not taking any action against the three students.

In her FIR, the girl, a B. Arch student, stated that she was touched inappropriately on December 28 on the train headed towards Chennai and again in a hotel where the group of students and lecturers accompanying them was staying in the Tamil Nadu capital.

The accused Thakre had allegedly dragged the complainant inside his room at the hotel and beat her up and when she managed to come out, Burade and Bhannare allegedly teased her, police had said.

"The girl stated that the college authorities only took written apologies from the three students, but did not initiate any action against them," a local police official had said.

The college is run by district guardian minister Pravin Pote.