NEET exam: Five arrested for forcing girl students to remove innerwear in Kerala

Five women, who were on NEET exam duty held in an educational institute in Kerala, were arrested on Tuesday here for allegedly asking girl students to remove their innerwear for appearing for the test held on Sunday.

Kollam(Kerala)/New Delhi: Five women were arrested on Tuesday in Kerala for forcing girl students, who appeared for NEET, to remove their innerwear while the National Testing Agency (NTA) constituted a fact-finding committee to look into the alleged incident.

Of the five arrested, two - both Mariamma - are employees of Marthoma College, Ayur, where the incident was reported. The rest are identified as Geethu, Veena and Jyotsana all working for the agency which was hired by the NTA. The arrest follows a four-hour-long interrogation of the accused. The complainant was a 17-year old girl. Several other girl students have made similar allegations, though they have not separately filed police complaints.

The College authorities have maintained that they had no role in the examination other than providing the campus for the conduct of the examination and that there was an agency employed by the NTA which is responsible for the conduct of the examination. Police said the arrested the NTA's agency workers reportedly forced the girls to remove their innerwear and the college employees who were present too insisted the girls to comply with the directives of the NTA's representatives, who subjected the participants to undergo the handheld metal detector test.

Police earlier registered a case based on the complaint of a girl, who alleged that she was asked to remove her bra before she could be permitted to appear for the eligibility test. The NTA, which conducts the test, set up the panel after the Kerala government took up the issue with the Centre seeking strong action. The arrest follows protests that began on July 18.

The personnel reportedly objected to the metallic hook in the innerwear. Taking note of the allegation, the Union Ministry of Education (MoE) said that it has been brought to its notice through various media reports that an incident allegedly happened in one of the Centres of NEET (UG)-2022 in Kerala. Accordingly, the Ministry said, a fact-finding committee has been constituted by the NTA to ascertain the facts in detail.

National Commission of Women (NCW) had written to the NTA to conduct an independent inquiry into allegations levelled by the girl students and to take appropriate action in accordance with law against the responsible. It also impressed upon Kerala DGP to investigate the matter and submit an action taken report within 3 days.

Kerala Higher Education Minister R Bindu, in a letter to Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, expressed "dismay and shock" at the news of "naked assault on the dignity and honour of the girl students." Bindu sought action to prevent future occurrences of a similar nature and sought the Union Minister's intervention in the matter.

A section of agitators, who took out protest marches, vandalised the education institution at Ayur, where the complainant girl was allegedly asked to remove her innerwear before appearing for the test. Student activists allegedly entered the college premises breaking the police cordon, leading to vandalism. Some student activists suffered injuries in police action.

Based on the girl's complaint, police registered a case. IPC Sections 354 (Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 509 (Word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) have been invoked, police said.

In a statement, the Kerala Women's Commission said based on the two complaints received, it was convinced that prima facie these were actions that insulted women. The chairperson of the commission also asked the NTA, to take action against those responsible for the incident. (with Agency inputs)