The student says she released the audio recordings of the Principal of St Stephen's in self-defence
"I was verbally abused initially, then was sexually assaulted. The harassment started in 2013."
A day after she submitted audio recordings of the Principal of St Stephen's allegedly trying to protect her assailant, a Delhi University Ph.D student has told NDTV that she released the tapes in self-defence.
In an interview to NDTV, her first since she submitted these audio recordings to the police, the young woman has said Reverend Valson Thampu, the Principal of St Stephen's, was more concerned about the reputation of his college and urged her to withdraw her complaint against Dr Satish Kumar, her research guide who had allegedly sexually assaulted her.
Refuting statements made by Reverend Thampu that she was not willing to lodge an official complaint initially, the student told NDTV, "I realised Thampu wasn't favouring me when he asked me to withdraw the complaint on January 10."
Asked why she had initially withdrawn her complaints, she said, 'I was forced to withdraw complaint and call it an 'academic matter'".
Stating that the St Stephen's Principal misled her parents, she told NDTV, 'Principal Thampu assured (my) parents saying 'she is like my daughter.'" Now, several months later, she says her parents too are convinced that Reverend Thampu was involved in a cover-up.
In one of her strongest statements to NDTV, she said the audio recordings clearly established that her Supervisor, Dr Satish Kumar was even willing to write her thesis if the case against him was not pursued. According to the student, "Why did supervisor offer to write my thesis if he's not guilty?"
Asked to respond to allegations that she may have been influenced to tarnish the reputation of the college, the student broke down and was unable to respond.
NDTV cannot independently verify the contents of the audio clips which have been submitted to the Delhi Police, in which Reverend Thampu is heard saying, "Trust God, trust me. You have to take that complaint back. Do it today... or there will be complications. It will be out of my hands." He also purportedly tells the student, "Be a happy person, you are a young girl, you need to be happy. You should focus on completing your PhD thesis and withdraw the complaint or there will be complications."
On Facebook this morning, Reverend Thampu said "mischievously edited and cleverly manipulated transcripts" had been released to the media.