Shocking: 60 Bhuj college girls were forced to strip to check Menstruation in Gujrat

Principal Rita Raninga, girls ' hostel rector Ramilaben and college peon Naina were suspended on Saturday after police lodged an FIR against them for allegedly pressuring more than 60 girls to remove their undergarments to check if they were menstruating.

A College in Bhuj, Gujarat's Kutch district has suspended its principal, hostel rector and peon after police have lodged an FIR against them for allegedly forcing more than 60 girls to remove their undergarments to check it they were menstruating.

.Principal Rita Raninga, girls ' hostel rector Ramilaben, and college peon Naina were suspended on Saturday after the FIR registered against them, Pravin Pindoria, trustee of the Shree Sahajanand Girls Institute (SSGI) said Monday.

A woman, identified as Anita who is not associated with the college, was also named as an accused in the FIR lodged by Bhuj police in addition to these three.

The accused were booked under Sections 384 (extortion), 355 (assault with intent to dishonor a person), and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.

SSGI is a self-financed college, having its own girls' hostel. It is run by a trust of the Swaminarayan Temple, Bhuj.

The college is affiliated to the Krantiguru Shyamji Krishna Verma Kutch University.

After the incident came to light, on Sunday a seven-member National Commission for Women (NCW) team met the hostel's girl inmates, who were reportedly pressured by the authorities to remove their undergarments to test whether they were menstruating.

An earlier student told media people that the incident took place in the hostel on February 11, located on the SSGI campus offering graduate and undergraduate courses.

She alleged that over 60 students were taken to the washroom by a woman staffer and made to remove their undergarments to check if they were menstruating.

After a investigation, Darshana Dholakia, vice chancellor in charge of the university to which the college is affiliated, had said earlier that the girls were examined because the hostel has a provision that girls with periods are not supposed to take meals with other prisoners.

When they came to know that some menstruating girls had broken the law and taken the meal, the hostel authorities decided to check them. Police earlier said a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was created to investigate the incident, with female police officers as its members.