Police in Kerala have registered a case of outraging of modesty after several girls alleged they were forced to remove their brassieres at a centre for the medical entrance exam NEET on Monday.

The girls who took the test at the Mar Thoma Institute of Information Technology in Ayur, Kollam district, said it was a traumatic experience for them that they had to cover the portion of their dress above the chest with their hair as male aspirants were also writing the three-hour exam with them and that they could not focus on the test as their confidence had been shaken.

The FIR, lodged on the basis of a complaint from a girl who was allegedly forced to remove her bra, has charged unidentified persons under IPC Sections 354 (outraging the modesty of women) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of women).

Four more students on Tuesday lodged police complaints, while cops have recorded the statements of two complainants.

The pre-exam frisking had been done at the Mar Thoma College of Science and Technology on the same campus. The authorities of Mar Thoma Institute of Information Technology said they had merely outsourced the institution as an exam centre and that the security and invigilation had been handled by the National Testing Agency (NTE), the central government outfit that conducts the NEET.

Several students’ outfits held protests in Ayur on Tuesday and the Mar Thoma Institute of Information Technology was vandalised. Kerala higher education minister R. Bindu wrote to Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan seeking strong action against the agency and expressing “dismay and shock” at the news of the “naked assault on the dignity and honour of the girl students”.

An NTA official in charge of the 26 exam centres in Kollam district has claimed that “no untoward incident has happened in any of the centres”. “The complaint levelled by the parent seems to be with wrong intentions,” he said in a letter to the Delhi headquarters. The name of the official was masked in a copy of the letter circulated to the media.

The NTA has set up a fact-finding committee to look into the allegations.

V. Muraleedharan, the minister of state for external affairs, and other public representatives from Kerala met Pradhan on Tuesday and demanded action.

“The ministry of education has asked the National Testing Agency to ascertain all the facts about the incident on the spot from stakeholders present at the centre at that time. Accordingly, a fact-finding committee has been constituted by the NTA to ascertain the facts in detail. Further action will be taken based on the report of the fact-finding committee,” said a media release issued by the Press Information Bureau.

The Kollam police have launched an investigation to identify and arrest those responsible for outraging the modesty of the aspirants.

One of the students told a news channel that those who were told to remove their bras had to use their hair to cover the portion of their dress above their chests since they were seated along with boys.

“We covered our chests with our hair since boys and girls were made to sit together. It was a very traumatic experience that affected our confidence and definitely impacted our performance in the test,” she said.

Another girl said: “Writing the exam without my innerwear affected me very badly.”

She said women staff at the exam centre stopped them once they entered the college building after completing the preliminary security check at the gates.

“A woman stopped us after we completed all the security checks and entered the building. She asked us if we were wearing sports bras or those with metal hooks or buckles. Those wearing bras with metal hooks were segregated and told to remove their bras. She said students at all centres were required to do so. But only when we got out of the centre after the exam did we realise that only this centre insisted on girls removing their innerwear,” the girl said.

The father of the 17-year-old girl who was the first to lodge a police complaint said the student was in tears and that she took her mother’s shawl to appear for the exam.

It is not clear why the girls were forced to remove their bras but sources said the metal detectors would have blipped after detecting the hooks of the innerwear. The NEET dress code prohibits “metallic items” but does not state clearly whether garments with metallic hooks are also prohibited.

Students’ unions of ruling and Opposition parties protested outside the Ayur college on Tuesday demanding the arrest of those responsible for the woes of the girls. They broke barricades and hurled stones at the police before barging into the campus where they smashed windowpanes. Several students and policemen were injured in stone pelting and the ensuing baton charge by the cops.

Bindu, the state higher education minister, said in her letter to Union education minister Pradhan: “The shame and shock of this unexpected turn of events have affected the morale and composure of the students whose performance in the test was consequently affected…. I write to place on record that we take strong exception to such inhuman behaviour from an agency that has only been entrusted with the task of conducting the examination in a fair manner.”

Bindu wrote on Facebook: “The exam is conducted by the National Testing Agency assigned by the Union government. Those who forced the students to remove their innerwear had wrongly interpreted the rules. There has been a major lapse on part of the agency.”

The Kerala Women’s Commission has called for stringent action against those responsible for traumatising the girls. “The commission cannot see this as an isolated incident. The commission has contacted several girls and their parents. We are visiting the homes of the complainant and all other girls who raised the issue,” commission member Shahida Kamal told reporters after visiting the college on Tuesday.

Additional reporting by Basant Kumar Mohanty in New Delhi