:-Snehi suryash
On Saturday, the Chennai police booked Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad National President Dr Subbiah Shanmugam for allegedly harassing a woman. The complaint was filed by one of their 62-year-old neighbour in Chennai over charges of alleged harassment. However, late at night, the RSS-linked student group claimed that the woman’s nephew, Balaji Vijayaraghavan, had withdrawn the complaint.
ABVP claimed that “Misunderstandings between two families now stand cleared, and all issues between the two parties have now resolved.”
But Vijayaraghavan said the complaint had not been technically withdrawn, though he acknowledged that the family held talks with ABVP. “An FIR has been filed and legal procedures have to follow,” he said. “We want police look at evidence which were portrayed as false by the accused. He added that during legal process, the family may think of formally withdrawing the complaint. The reason been stated that Shanmugam is a doctor whose services are needed in the time of the coronavirus pandemic.
The complaint filed against Dr. Shanmugam
In the complaint filed against ABVP President, the lady had alleged that he had urinated at her doorstep and thrown garbage at her doorstep. Also throwing used face masks and garbage, after a disagreement over parking slots at a housing society in Nanganallur area. two parties have now resolved,” the ABVP stated. Earlier, the 62-year-old women had submitted CCTV footage and photos as evidence for the Shanmugam’s act.
The misunderstanding between the woman and the ABVP leader had started over the parking space issue. Since January, the doctor had not paid the money which led to a fight between the duo. According to her family, the woman had asked Shanmugam to pay a fee of Rs.1,500 for using her parking space. On July 10, the camera recorded him allegedly urinating in front of the house.
The 62-year-old complainant had registered a case under IPC sections 271 and 427, besides TN Prohibition of Women Harassment Act.
On July 11,
family went to Adambakkam police station to file complaint along with the CCTV footage. The footage purportedly shows the ABVP leader throwing garbage and urinating at her door. At the time, the police did not file an FIR. Bala, police officer at the Adambakkam police station, claimed that the woman didn’t want the FIR and make details public. She told the officers about a compromise being worked out between both of the parties.
Dr. Shanmugam is a professor and Head of the Department of Surgical Oncology at Kilpauk Medical College and Government Royapettah Hospital. He has denied the allegations and claimed that the CCTV footage was doctored. “That is not me,” he added. “Someone is manipulating the situation. This is a social media trial. I never put waste on their door or harassed my neighbour in any way.”
While media reported that Dr. Shanmugam had been booked by police on Saturday, on Sunday, ABVP released a statement confirming that the complaint which was filed by one neighbour of Dr Shanmugam at Chennai Adambakkam police for allegedly harassing the woman over a parking spot was withdrawn.
ABVP attacks NSUI over purported video
Contending the footage to be tampered, the ABVP blamed the Congress-backed National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) for circulating the video. Reacting to the issue, ABVP’s national General secretary Nidhi Tripathi had said that Congress affiliated students’ body was running malicious and derogatory propaganda against its National President and demanded an investigation into the claims made by NSUI.
“NSUI is running malicious, derogatory propaganda against Dr Subbiah Shanmugam with a tampered video purported as harassment. ABVP demands investigation to be done on the claims by NSUI. The claims being libelous in nature have invited legal action against the national office bearers of INC, IYC, and NSUI. The video shared by NSUI with an allegation of harassment is tampered with and is being used with malafide intentions. Two families have discussed this within their housing society. And have already concluded that the harassment allegations were caused due to misunderstandings and are untrue,” the statement released by ABVP read.
