St Stephen's college principal denies charge of trying to bury sexual assault case against professor

New Delhi: St Stephen's College Principal Valson Thampu has rejected the charge of trying to bury the case of sexual assault against a college professor. Thampu said that the alleged incident happened in 2013 and the student approached him in December 2014.

Thampu said, "I never asked the student to withdraw her complaint. I advised her to approach the internal complaints committee. She refused to do so and said she wanted to continue research with the professor. On January 9, 2015, she came with a written complaint which mentioned sexual assault. I told her that the complaint has to go to internal committee. She told me not to report matter to internal committee as all she wanted was her degree. I told her I had no choice but to take the case to internal committee. She then withdrew the complaint and said the case was closed."

The student gave a written complaint to Thampu on January 9 but was reportedly apprehensive about it going to the internal complaints committee as it could have affected her degree. The PhD student withdrew her complaint alleging bias by the internal panel.

Thampu sent the complaint to the internal panel just five days later on January 14. "I am surprised that student has withdrawn complaint now," he said.

The student has accused St Stephen's Professor Satish Kumar of harassing her for two years.