An Indian student, who is from Mumbai studying at the University of Southern California, was arrested on 11th April and was charged with sexually assaulting another student in the campus dormitory.
20-years-old Armaan Premjee, a sophomore at Marshall School of Business at the USC, was arrested around at 11 a.m. on 11th April by the Los Angeles Police Department’s Robbery and Homicide division, which usually investigates the high-profile cases, USC campus police told India-West. He was released at 8 p.m. on the same day on a bail of $100,000. His next court appearance is on 2nd May.
In the year 2015, Premjee was awarded with an Ambassador Scholar Award by The National Society of High School Scholars for his studies at the USC. His twitter profile notes that he was formerly a state director for the NSHSS in Maharashtra, and with the organization, he built housing for low-income people in Mumbai. He was expected to graduate in the year 2019.
As per the brief report from the Los Angeles Police Department, the incident occurred on early morning of April 1 on the USC campus. The assault was immediately reported to the USC’s Department of Public Safety, which then turned it over to the LAPD for the investigation. During the press time, a spokesman for the LAPD had not returned calls from India-West regarding the investigation and also why it waited 10 days before arresting Premjee.
Chris Cousins, a member of the USC’s Kappa Sigma fraternity, to which Premjee belonged, told to India-West that the young student had been expelled from the fraternity before his arrest was made. Cousins said that fraternity knew about the incident and the pending investigation.
Kappa Sigma issued a statement, noting: “This individual was immediately suspended and has already been removed from The USC Delta-Eta Chapter of The Kappa Sigma Fraternity.”
“We have been working closely with Title IX, Kappa Sigma Nationals and the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Leadership Development throughout this entire process to ensure that the proper measures are taken. His actions are absolutely not condoned by the Kappa Sigma Fraternity.”
As per the report in a campus newspaper, the Daily Trojan, Premjee said that he wrote a resignation letter to the president of Kappa Sigma fraternity prior to his arrest.
Zen Vuong, of the USC’s media relations division, told to India-West that she could not confirm whether Premjee was still enrolled at the university or whether he had been expelled from the university following his arrest. Vuong directed this publication to a USC Web site specifically dealing with the sexual harassment on campus.
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A statement on the university’s Web site noted:
“The University of Southern California expects that all members of the university community – students, faculty, staff and friends – should be able to pursue their work and education in a safe environment, free from sexual coercion, violence and sexual intimidation.” “The university community is committed to fostering a safe campus environment where sexual misconduct and violence are unacceptable, and where survivors or those who believe they were harmed by another in violation of this policy are provided support and avenues of redress as appropriate.”
“All members of the university community are expected to conduct themselves in a manner that does not infringe upon the rights of others,” stated the university.
The campus papers also reported that, Premjee said, he could not discuss specifics about the case due to the legal reasons. Robinder Samudrala, Premjee’s attorney, declined the repeated requests from paper for comment.
Mrudula Duddempudi.
