A Singapore performance artist Tuesday denied being behind a slew of anonymous sexual misconduct accusations aired online but said one of the men accused, an arts school instructor now under investigation by his school, has a “sordid” history.
Chand Chandramohan said School of the Arts Singapore instructor Jason Lim was wrong to accuse her of being behind the @Durian.dot Instagram account which levied allegations of sexual harassment, assault and statutory rape against at least 20 men before being deactivated. She acknowledged sharing the post but said she later removed them due to concerns that they might have violated the privacy of the victim.
“Knowing Jason Lim has a sordid history in the arts, and thinking someone is finally exposing him, I reshared the post on my stories,” she wrote in a message.
Chandramohan, 28, declined to explain what she meant by “sordid history,” only responding that “many people [were] speaking out about Jason.”
The episode erupted after the account published dozens of accusations against men it identified by their Instagram usernames.
Lim was one of multiple instructors and a student at the School of the Arts, or SOTA, to be accused. He was accused in the posts of making an unwanted advance toward a student.
He had not replied to messages seeking comment as of publication time.
SOTA said yesterday it was looking into the allegations and would cooperate with any police investigation. It urged anyone with a similar story to come forward.
“We thank members of the public for drawing our attention to the various allegations concerning, amongst others, Mr Jason Lim, a Visual Arts teacher of SOTA on social media. We are also aware of the allegations made by the @durian.dot Instagram account which appears to now be deactivated,” it said in the statement.
The school added that it would “continue to take appropriate steps to investigate the matter and, where appropriate, impose sanctions” in light of any such allegations involving employees or students.
Though it is not known who ran the @Durian.dot Instagram account, the police have filed a complaint against them for airing the accusations.
Chandramohan previously went public to say that Lim had accused her of being behind it. Chandramohan earlier said Lim had doxxed and harassed her by accusing her of being @Durian.dot. She said that she filed a police report against Lim yesterday.
“So… Jason lim, the famous performance artist […] and lecturer at School of the Arts, Singapore has taken to doxxing me online, sending harassing messages to followers of durian.dot and me, doxxing my face taken from my google account, making false claims that I am behind durian.dot when I have literally never heard of durian dot until yesterday,” she wrote.
She told Coconuts on Tuesday that she only shared the post in a story that she deleted after about 30 minutes because the victim “did not consent” to having the testimonial shared publicly.
“I was honestly taken a back that for an account that claims to be [a sexual assault] advocate group, they would post a testimony with so many identifiers,” she said. “I immediately deleted the story. I would like to reiterate here, that I was not the only one who shared the post on my stories.”
The posts outed more than 20 other men by their Instagram usernames for alleged sexual assaults, some of which allegedly involved minor victims, according to a review by the Straits Times.
One of the posts described a SOTA ceramics teacher’s harassment of a 19-year-old student while sharing a cab. Though the post did not explicitly name Lim, it did identify the same first name. Lim’s faculty profile notes his achievements in ceramics.
“Upon arrival at Jason’s destination, he tried to get me to come over to his place when the cab stopped and was stroking my hand to try to get me to go over. I stood my ground and said no, and eventually he got out of the cab,” one of the deleted posts read.
Another accused a SOTA student of sharing upskirt photos.
The school called upon students and staff to report any perpetrator so that they can “properly investigate the matter.”
Several posts had been deleted from the Instagram account before it vanished and after it was called out for “doxxing.”
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