4 women booked for ragging, prof for sexual harassment day after Himachal student dies in hospital

Four woman students of a government college in Himachal Pradesh’s Dharamshala have been booked on charges of ragging and voluntarily causing hurt, while a professor has been booked for sexual harassment of a 19-year-old student, police Friday said. The professor has denied the allegations.

The victim was admitted to Dayanand Medical College and Hospital (DMCH), Ludhiana, where she died during treatment on December 26 last year. The FIR was registered Thursday based on a complaint by her father, a resident of Dharamshala. The father has alleged that his daughter, a second year student of BA, was harassed and assaulted by three seniors on September 18, 2025, while the college professor indulged in obscene acts with her. All accused are residents of Dharamshala.

The victim belongs to a Scheduled Caste (SC) community. Two of the four woman too are from a SC community, while belongs to the Scheduled Tribe community. The professor is from the Other Backward Classes (OBC).

The complainant said that following assault and sexual harassment, his daughter went into severe mental stress and fear, leading to a deterioration in her health following which she had be admitted to a hospital. He said a police complaint could not be lodged earlier as the family was looking after the daughter. He said his daughter shared her ordeal with a nurse and an attendant of another patient while she was undergoing treatment at a hospital in Kangra and later at DMCH, Ludhiana. He alleged the family had earlier complained to the college administration about ragging, but no action was taken.

“The FIR was registered only after we lodged a complaint through the CM Helpline following my daughter’s death,” he said, adding that complaint with the police could not be lodged earlier as his daughter was traumatised and was in a hospital.

Kangra SP Ashok Rattan said that FIR was registered immediately after receiving the complaint. “It would be premature to draw any conclusions without an in-depth investigation. Earlier, a complaint was submitted through the Anti-Ragging Helpline, but it did not mention allegations of sexual harassment, which were included in the fresh complaint lodged through the CM Helpline. The police were neither informed about the victim’s death nor about her cremation on December 27,” he said.

The FIR has been registered under Sections 75 (sexual harassment), 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 3(5) (common intention) of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023 and Section 3 of the Himachal Pradesh Educational Institution (Prohibition of) Ragging Act, 2009 at Dharamshala police station.

The SP said that medical records, video evidence and statements of the persons concerned are being examined.

Earlier, two videos, purportedly recorded by the student before her death were shared on social media. In the videos, the victim accused the professor of indecent acts, mental harassment and intimidation when she protested against his behaviour. The victim’s father has handed over the videos to the police.

Police said that during preliminary investigations it has come to fore that victim had enrolled in the college in 2024. She allegedly faced ragging by some students. She stopped attending college after the results were declared in July 2025 and she failed her BA first year examination. 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 professor, meanwhile, denied the allegations saying that he had taught the victim when she was a first year student of BA. He claimed that after failing in three subjects, including the one he taught, in the first-year annual examination, she enrolled in the second year pending re-evaluation. He claimed that he met her only once thereafter, when she sought permission to attend second-year classes. “We advised her to follow the rules. She was told if she cleared the re-evaluation, she would be allowed to attend classes,” he told the Indian Express.

BJP senior leader and former chief minister Jai Ram Thakur demanded a high-level, fair and impartial investigation into the death of the 19-year-old student while alleging that the incident puts a question mark on the functioning of the police. Thakur, who is also the Leader of the Opposition, termed the incident deeply painful and unfortunate. “Allegations of negligence by the police and administration has raised serious questions on functioning of the Congress government,” Thakur said and urged Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu to take cognisance of the matter, stating that it was linked to justice for a daughter and all facts must come out through an unbiased probe.

In a related development, a CPI(M) delegation, led by the party’s state secretary Sanjay Chauhan, submitted a memorandum to DGP Ashok Tewari demanding a fair and impartial investigation into the matter by a senior officer. Chauhan said the police must examine whether the incident had any link to caste-based discrimination. “The incident took place in September, but the FIR was registered only after the death of the victim. Why was there a delay of over three months? We have learnt that the victim’s family had visited the Dharamshala police station in between, but there is no information available on what action the police took. We urged the DGP to investigate all aspects of the case, especially to rule out any possibility of atrocities against the Scheduled Caste community,” said Chauhan.