Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Jan 2: Three female students and a professor of a college in Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh have been booked for ragging and sexual assault, curiously on a complaint from a deceased student who is allegedly failed in three subjects in first year B.A and was still demanding that she may be re-admitted in the second year, the police said on Friday.
The 19-year old student recorded a mobile video detailing her ordeal before she died on December 26. She spoke about how the professor touched her inappropriately and several other instances of mental and sexual harassment. The father of the student of Dharamshala’s Government Degree College, in a police complaint alleged that on September 18, three female students identified as Harshita, Akriti, and Komolika allegedly assaulted his daughter in an act of brutal ragging and threatened her to keep her silence.
The complaint also named Ashok Kumar, a professor in the college, as one of the accused. The father said his daughter suffered from high stress due to the professor’s alleged indecent behaviour and mental harassment. This led to her health deteriorating continuously, the complaint said.
Due to the beating and harassment, the student was hospitalised and died during treatment, the complaint said. The father of the deceased woman alleged that following these incidents, his daughter went into severe mental stress and fear, leading to a rapid deterioration in her health. He said the complaint could not be lodged earlier as his daughter was traumatised and had to be hospitalised.
A case under sections 75 (sexual harassment), 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 3(5) (common intention) of BNS and Section 3 of Himachal Pradesh Educational Institution (Prohibition of) Ragging Act 2009 has been registered and investigations are underway, the police said.
Her family said she was treated at various hospitals before she died on December 26 while undergoing treatment in Ludhiana’s DMC Hospital. The family said they could not file a complaint earlier due to the shock they suffered on the death of their daughter.
They said they decided to file the complaint after their daughter recorded a video in a mobile phone before she died. In the video, she accused the professor of inappropriate behaviour like touching her, and mental harassment in the classroom and on the campus. The student alleged the accused threatened her to keep quiet when she protested.
The father said he filed a complaint with the police and the chief minister’s helpline on December 20, but they did not respond. The police have filed a case under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Himachal Pradesh Educational Institutions (Prohibition of Ragging) Act, 2009, police officer Ashok Rattan said.
The police said they had been investigating the ragging angle since the complaint filed on December 20 mentioned only that. However, the investigation has expanded after the allegations against the professor surfaced, the police said. The probe will look into all the hospitals where the student was admitted before she died.
Confirming that a case has been registered, Kangra Superintendent of Police (SP) Ashok Ratan said all the allegations are being thoroughly investigated. Medical records, video evidence and statements of all concerned are being examined, he said.
The case gained momentum after a video allegedly recorded by the student before her death went viral on social media. In the video, the victim accused the professor of indecent acts, mental harassment and intimidation when she protested against his behaviour.
The police said a complaint was initially received through the Chief Minister’s Sankalp Seva Helpline and an investigation team but the student’s statement could not be recorded as she was unwell at the time. The police later recorded the statement of the victim’s father.
Preliminary investigations by the police pointed out that the deceased student was enrolled in the college in 2024. She allegedly faced ragging by some students and failed her BA first year examination. She subsequently stopped attending college after the results were declared in July 2025. Her name was struck off the college rolls on August 21, 2025. She is believed to have visited the college again in September seeking admission, where she was informed that she would be admitted to the second year only if she cleared the re-evaluation, failing which she would have to re-enrol in the first year.
The college administration has distanced itself from the case. It said the woman failed in her first year, yet sought admission to the second year. College principal Rakesh Pathania alleged she had not filed any complaint with them earlier. Pathania said the teenager had failed three subjects in her first year and, as per university guidelines, could not be promoted to the second year.
“She approached the professor who teaches geography, her main subject, and it was explained to her that she had to take admission to the first year again. So, she was also depressed because of her results and felt we were deliberately denying her admission in the second year. Based on the information given to me by teachers, she has not attended classes since July 29,” the principal said.
Pathania asserted that the college authorities tried to call the teenager’s parents after this, but got no response. “We have a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to ragging. Students are encouraged to approach teachers on the ragging committee and there are several women teachers she could have complained to, but she did not. The college did not receive any such complaint. Another complaint to the chief minister’s helpline in December did not reach us because the name of another college was mentioned. We are cooperating with the police,” he explained.
“Harassment allegations are also being made. The professor in question has been teaching for years and I don’t want to say more about this because it is for the police to investigate,” he added.
Meanwhile, the accused professor has denied all allegations levelled against him. Some teachers have come in support of the professor. He said the student had studied under him in a previous academic session and was not his student in the current session. ABVP State secretary Nancy Atal said the accused should be brought to book to ensure that such incidents do not occur in future.