The Andhra Pradesh police on Sunday arrested S Ramesh, aged 42, the Secretary and Correspondent of the Grace Nursing College for Women in Machilipatnam, for allegedly seeking sexual favours from a 22-year-old student. The police said that he was arrested a day after the woman filed a police complaint alleging that he has been harassing her and seeking sexual favours.

Sexual Harassment 

Ramesh has been arrested under the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013 (Nirbhaya Act) and other sections of the Indian Penal Code including those related to outraging the modesty of a woman, sexual harassment, criminal intimidation, Additional Superintendent of Police M. Sattibabu said. The accused has also been booked under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. He was produced before a local court on Saturday which remanded him to custody.

SP Ramesh said that in July, the accused had allegedly attempted to sexually assault the victim in his chamber reportedly after she refused to entertain his request for the sexual favours. Later, she had left the college hostel. The police are investigating the case. Meanwhile, Vasireddy  Padma, the Chairperson of the Andhra Pradesh Women Commission, inspected the college during the day and interacted with the students. 

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#MeToo

This comes days after the arrest of BJP leader Swami Chinmayanand who had earlier been accused of rape. He has been sent to the jail for 14 days by the court. A 23-year-old postgraduate student in his college had levied serious accusations of rape against the former Union minister. She claimed that he had raped and 'physically exploited' her for over a year. According to the woman, Chinmayanand had allegedly facilitated her admission in the college and then filmed her while she was taking a bath. He was allegedly using the film to blackmail her and raping her. In her statement, she has also said that she was often forced to give massages to the leader and was brought to him by his aides at gunpoint. 

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(Inputs from PTI)