The 20-year-old student told her college principal that her head of department Samir Kumar Sahu was asking her for sexual favours and, when she turned him down, began harassing her and threatened to fail her.

Principal Dilip Ghose did nothing.

She put in a complaint with her college internal complaints committee (ICC) and reportedly wrote that if the college authorities didn’t act, “I will commit suicide.”

Nothing.

She filed a complaint with the police.

Still nothing.

On Saturday July 12, after the second year B.Ed student of the Fakir Mohan (autonomous) college in Balasore, Odisha doused herself with kerosene and set herself ablaze, suddenly something. Finally, the principal and the professor suspended from the college and arrested.

Next, police swings into action saying that it will investigate the role of the nine-member ICC to examine criminal liability and administrative inaction.

Finally, in the face of student protest and anger, Odisha chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi promises “strict legal action” against those found responsible and announces ₹20 lakh ex-gratia compensation to the student’s family.

A UGC fact-finding committee is

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