Bar body moves Supreme Court demanding probe into proof of periods asked from female workers
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) has filed a plea in the apex court over allegations that female sanitation workers at the Maharashi Dayanand University, Haryana, were asked to prove through pictures of their private parts that they were menstruating.
The plea has sought directions to the Centre and Haryana to conduct a detailed inquiry into the alleged incident.
The Bar body has also sought guidelines to ensure that the right to health, dignity, bodily autonomy and privacy of women and girls are not violated when they are menstruating.
Three people connected with Maharishi Dayanand University (MDU) here were booked for sexual harassment on October 31 for allegedly asking female sanitation workers to prove through pictures of their private parts that they were having their periods, police said.
The varsity, in a statement, said it had suspended two supervisors, who had been hired through Haryana Kaushal Rozgar Nigam Limited on contract, while an internal probe had been ordered into the incident.
The alleged incident took place on October 26, a few hours before Haryana Governor Ashim Kumar Ghosh was scheduled to visit the campus.
Three female sanitation workers, in a complaint to varsity authorities, alleged that the two supervisors first forced them to clean the complex despite being told they were "unwell" and then asked them to prove they were menstruating.
"We told them we could not work faster as we were unwell due to our periods, but they demanded we click photos of our private parts to prove it. When we refused, we were abused and threatened with dismissal," one of the sanitation workers, who claimed to be employed with MDU for 11 years, alleged.
The women alleged that the supervisors told them they were following Assistant Registrar Shyam Sunder's orders.
Sunder has denied giving any such instruction to the supervisors.
The PGIMS police station SHO said an FIR was registered under charges of criminal intimidation, sexual harassment, intent to insult the modesty of a woman and assault or use of criminal force on a woman.
The accused may also be booked under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, he said.
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Two arrested in K'taka for assaulting minors, uploading CSAM content
Bengaluru (PTI): Two men were arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting two minor girls, recording the acts on mobile phones and uploading the videos online as child sexual abuse material, police said on Thursday.
The accused have been identified as Kiran Kumar (29), hailing from Chitradurga district, and Aditya M K (20), hailing from Shivamogga district, they said.
A probe was initiated after information was received from the NCRP portal regarding a suspected instance of creation of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) for online dissemination, police said.
Accordingly, a case was registered at Kaggalipura Police Station under relevant sections of the IT Act on May 10, they added.
Investigation revealed that two minor girl victims were exploited and videos were created and uploaded to the internet. The child victims have subsequently recorded their statements as per procedure and further necessary legal steps have been taken, Pronab Mohanty Director General of Police, Cyber Command, said in a statement.
Based on the statements of the victims, the accused persons, who allegedly assaulted the minors, recorded the acts on mobile phones and uploaded the videos online, were arrested, he said.
Following the probe, sections 65(2) (rape) and 70 (gangrape) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with relevant sections of the POCSO Act, have been added to the FIR, police said.
Officials collected relevant information and on May 12, arrested the accused persons and seized three mobile phones belonging to them, in which the videos had allegedly been recorded, he said.
The accused were later produced before the court and taken into police custody for further investigation, he added.
According to him, in CSAM cases, police usually apprehend offenders who have downloaded such content or have kept them in their possession after obtaining them from elsewhere, usually the internet.
"The present case is one of the very few instances where content creators and uploaders have been apprehended," Mohanty added.
