’We Were Beaten’, shifted to 6 police stations: HCU students

Mangalore Today News Network

Hyderabad Mar 30, 2016 : Students and teachers of the Hyderabad Central University who were released on bail after a week in jail have alleged that they were beaten up and threatened by the police.

 

 

"I myself heard the police threaten girls with rape. Police told us that our human rights have collapsed for the next 24 hours," said Tathagatha Sen Gupta, assistant professor for Mathematics at the university.

Twenty-four students and two teachers were arrested last week after the university’s Vice-Chancellor P Appa Rao was held hostage for nearly six hours by a large group of students protesting against research scholar Rohith Vemula’s suicide in January.

How the police evicted them has been harshly reviewed by a team that included human rights activists and lawyers who found that women students were threatened with rape, and that Muslims were referred to as "terrorists" by the police.

"My students were beaten right from the time they were picked up and all through the while they were in police custody. Even I was not spared," said Professor KY Ratnam, in his 50s.

M Krishank, an activist of the Congress-affiliated students’ union NSUI, said the students were shifted to six different police stations in less than 24 hours. "Appa Rao cannot continue as Vice-Chancellor. We will continue our protests in the university," he said, before being lifted up by cheering supporters outside the Cherlapally Central Jail.

The University campus has been a volatile zone since Rohith Vemula, a 26-year-old Dalit student, hung himself, days after being banned from the hostel and other areas on campus. A month before he died, Mr Vemula wrote a letter to Mr Rao, alleging caste discrimination against Dalits on campus. Students say instead of helping him out, the Vice-Chancellor went ahead with suspending Mr Vemula for allegedly assaulting members of a rival student group affiliated to the BJP.

A section of students who have formed a group called the Joint Action Committee says the Vice-Chancellor is guilty of persecuting Mr Vemula, driving him to suicide.

D Prashanth, a close friend of Mr Vemula and among the five students who were punished earlier by Mr Rao, said, "It’s an undeclared emergency at the university. Everything was fine when he was away. Universities are becoming jails."