New Delhi: The South Asian University (SAU) in Delhi is facing sustained student protests after a first-year student alleged she was sexually assaulted by four men, including a campus security guard, on the premises on Sunday (October 12) night.

Students accuse the administration of severe negligence, victim-blaming and obstructing justice in a way they claim fits a broader institutional pattern.

The allegation and immediate aftermath

The student per a detailed first information report (FIR) filed with the Delhi police alleged that the physical assault followed a campaign of online harassment involving threats and morphed photos.

SAU students released a timeline on Wednesday (October 15) detailing a series of alleged institutional failures.

At 10:34 pm on Sunday, a message about a missing student appeared in a student group, then was deleted at 10:46 pm after friends found her in a distressed state.

They reported her condition to the women's hostel caretaker. The student statement claimed that she took no immediate action, saying she would “see the girl in the morning”.

On Monday, between 9 am and 3 pm, the survivor's friends repeatedly sought help from the administration but received no meaningful response, the students' statement said.

During this time, the statement claimed the survivor faced “deeply insensitive remarks” from both the hostel caretaker and the hostel warden.

The two officials allegedly questioned how she could appear “normal”, accused her of tearing her own clothes and told her to “take a shower”, which students argue would have destroyed critical evidence.

A student interviewed by the YouTube channel ‘Khabargaon’ reiterated these claims: “The warden said that you tore your own clothes yourself … Go and take a shower, you'll be fine.”

Institutional delays and police involvement

With no action from the university, a friend of the survivor called the police control room at around 3 pm on Monday. The students' statement highlighted further delays: the university, which has no ambulance, took until 6 pm to arrange transport to a hospital. The medico-legal counselling, a critical step for collecting evidence, was not finished until 11 pm.

By Monday evening, students had started a sit-in at the university's administrative block. The FIR was finally registered around 3:30 am on Tuesday, an outcome students credit solely to their sustained pressure.

Protests escalate amid administrative response

The standoff has escalated. On Tuesday, after a long negotiation where the administration first insisted on allowing only two student representatives to participate before agreeing to three, officials held a meeting with a university committee headed by SAU vice president Sanjay Chaturvedi.

According to the students, the administration dismissed their core demands. The university then issued a public statement on X condemning the “alleged horrific act of sexual violence” and affirming its “zero-tolerance policy”.

The Wire attempted to contact senior members of the SAU administration for further comment, but had not received a response as of late Wednesday.

The situation intensified at around 12:30 am on October 15, when the Delhi police entered the boys' hostel and took a friend of the survivor's for questioning. The boys' hostel warden was reportedly unaware of the police action until students contacted him.

Protesters have made two primary demands: a fast-tracked, thorough police investigation to identify and arrest the culprits, and the immediate suspension of the women's hostel caretaker and the warden for negligence, pending a formal inquiry.

A history of conflict

For many protesters, this crisis reflects a long-standing culture of administrative repression at SAU. They point to past actions against students and faculty, often involving the same senior officials now under scrutiny.

A key precedent is the July expulsion of Sudeepto Das, a Bangladeshi PhD scholar. His expulsion for “serious misconduct” came after a February 26 clash in the mess hall over the serving of fish curry on Maha Shivratri.

Das said he intervened when he saw a group of ‘Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad-affiliated’ students physically intimidating the female mess secretary, Yashada Sawant.

In the proctorial inquiry that followed, Das and Sawant faced disciplinary action, while he claimed no proceedings were opened against the original aggressors.

In a detailed letter, accessed by The Wire, Das chronicled a history of what he called “sustained institutional harassment” by a “clique of faculty members” and specifically named a few officials. He alleged this stemmed from his role in the 2022 scholarship protests, where he publicly confronted Jha over Rs 54,161 in arbitrarily deducted stipend funds.

That period of unrest, from late 2022 to early 2023, began over cuts to Master's stipends and demands for greater financial transparency and student representation. The administration responded by calling the police onto campus and taking disciplinary action against five students, including Das.

This policy extended to faculty. On June 16, 2023, the university suspended four faculty members for allegedly “inciting students”. One, associate professor of economics Snehashish Bhattacharya, was formally terminated on September 11, 2025 (retroactive to his suspension date). The university cited 52 charges against him, mostly related to letters he co-signed in 2022 that criticised calling the police to campus and the “arbitrary” expulsion of students.

Bhattacharya was the only one of the four terminated, a decision that followed his refusal to submit a “submission of regret”.

Students fear facing similar repercussions for speaking out. This concern is compounded by SAU's unique status as a SAARC-affiliated institution under the Ministry of External Affairs, which they believe complicates legal recourse in Indian courts.

In their statement, the student body concluded: “This is not an isolated incident but a part of the larger systemic failure … It thrives on silencing the students, and promoting a culture of impunity of those in power … For the students to feel intellectually safe, they will have to feel physically safe first.”

The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.