Jadavpur University Students Keep Nude, Semi-Nude Photos Of Girl Classmates In Google Drive, Circulate Among Friends

Jadavpur University (JU) finds itself in the middle of a scandal after a girl student alleged that some boys in the college have been circulating 'nude and semi-nude' photographs of girls in a google drive.

The incident has come to light in the aftermath of 'bois locker room' controversy.

A Twitter user by the name of 'Aiyoobrows' narrated the trauma that women of her college have been going through for days now.

The user in a thread of tweets accused some students belonging to the university of maintaining a certain Google Drive and "using semi-nude and nude pictures of women in a Google drive and circulating it among their friends."

The tweet accused a student of JU, Gautam (name changed), of starting the account for Google drive and then sharing it among his friends, also from JU.

The tweet soon went viral. Several other women began coming forward to narrate about their encounters with Gautam and Rahul (name changed). They referred to the drive as an 'open secret', as no one had earlier been able to find enough evidence to accuse the men of the crime.

While Gautam studied in the Department of Electrical Engineering, while Rahul studies Economics in the JU.

Sources say that the drive has been in existence ever since 2016, if not before.

The Logical Indian reached out to Twitter user Aiyoobrows, to know more about the incident. We learnt that a number of women with the knowledge of the drive are either afraid or uncomfortable to raise their voices.

Gautam, who is now a pass-out, was Aiyoobrows' senior in college. They were both part of the university's debating club, and were well acquainted with each other and would often talk.

Aiyoobrows says that during their conversation, she realised that Gautam made her uncomfortable, and on a certain occasion, she felt that she was manipulated into sharing her picture with him.

She says that Gautam went on to send her a picture of his genitals, which she had not asked for.

It was in 2018 that Aiyoobrows came to know about the existence of the google drive from a friend, and about Gautam's involvement in it. She was told that her picture was in the drive, along with those of other women, all of which were being circulated without their consent.

The following is a statement Aiyoobrows shared with The Logical Indian.

"I later came to know about Rahul's alleged involvement in these activities, and he was my classmate," Aiyoobrows tells The Logical Indian. "I feel traumatized because I shared the same class with him."

"A lot of victims are scared but mostly they don't want to revisit past trauma which they have tried to let go with a lot of difficulties. I'm scared too. I fear for my life and if anything happens to me I hold these men responsible for it," she adds.

Apart from Gautam and Rahul, some other men too have also been called out by girls.

The Logical Indian Investigation

The following screenshots are Facebook posts by Gautam, Rahul and others named as the accused, all of whom have denied their involvement in the incident.

Rahul has accepted that he knew about such a drive being maintained by Gautam, and apologised for having done nothing about it, because of his "softness towards him".

In a Facebook post, Gautam denied all allegations against him.

We found another Facebook post by Ankit (name changed), who was also named in one of the tweets, denying that he knew about the existence of the drive.

However, a student of JU shared with us a screenshot of Ankit's testimony, where he claimed that he knew about the drive and Gautam and Rahul's alleged involvement, but did nothing to stop it.

"This toxic culture has existed for a while now. When I found out about the drive and spoke to people about it, they said it's an open secret. This is exactly what I want to call out. The kind of society or college environment which is sheltering people like him," Aiyoobrows says.

"Even now the organisations that have made them famous have issued no public apology yet. The debating society has said they want to boycott the members associated with the drive, but that's about it. Nobody else has said anything."

Jadavpur University (JU), is renowned not just in Kolkata, but across the country.

Aiyoobrows told us that authorities of the university have now been informed of the incident.

We did not name the accused here because our aim is not to call out individuals, but the toxic culture in educational institutions, even in prominent ones. What these men did is a reflection of a larger societal problem.

These are educated youngsters, studying in a very well-known university. It is clear that current education is failing to teach our students consent and respect.

At homes and in schools and colleges, subtle, casual sexism is normalised. Predatory behaviour is ignored.

Sexism needs to be called out. Schools and colleges need to ensure action against such perpetrators, instead of sheltering them. More importantly, our education system must reform to truly educate our youth.

The Logical Indian wrote to the college administration. The story will be updated once we receive a response from them.

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