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Gujarat College principal, 3 others sent to 2-day police custody for force-stripping girls

The college, Shree Sahajanand Girls Institute, is run by the Swaminarayan sect, which manages lavish temples around the world. The college is affiliated to the Krantiguru Shyamji Krishna Verma Kutch University.

Gujarat College principal, 3 others sent to 2-day police custody for force-stripping girls

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The principal and three other people of the Gujarat college where around 60 girl students were allegedly forced strip to check if they were menstruating, , were sent to two-day police custody on Monday.

Apart from the principal the others remanded include the coordinator, supervisor and a woman peon of the college.

The police arrested the four accused and produced them in a court on Monday. The police filed an FIR against them for the February 11 incident at Shree Sahajanand Girls Institute (SSGI) which caused public outrage.

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The accused were booked under Indian Penal Code sections 384 (extortion), 355 (assault with intent to dishonour a person) and 506 (criminal intimidation).

On February 11, as many as 68 girl students of Shree Sahajanand Girls Institute (SSGI) in Bhuj were reportedly paraded through the college into the restroom and forced to individually remove their undergarments to prove that they were not menstruating.

The action was taken to uphold the college rule that bars students from the hostel when they have their period.

The college, Shree Sahajanand Girls Institute, is run by the Swaminarayan sect, which manages lavish temples around the world. The college is affiliated to the Krantiguru Shyamji Krishna Verma Kutch University.

Earlier, trying to downplay the incident, the dean of the institute, Darshana Dholakia said that the matter was related to the hostel and has nothing to do with the college.

“Everything happened with the girls’ permission. Nobody was forced for it. Nobody touched them. Still, an inquiry team has been formed to look into the matter,” Dholakia claimed.

After the incident came to light, a seven-member team of the National Commission for Women (NCW) on Sunday met the girl inmates of the hostel.

A student earlier told media-persons that the incident took place on February 11 in the hostel, located on the campus of SSGI, which offers graduate and under-graduate courses.

She alleged that over 60 students were taken to the washroom by a woman staffer and made to remove their undergarments to check if they were menstruating.

The police earlier said a Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been formed, with woman police officials as its members, to probe the incident.

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