ABVP to agitate against ?conspiracy?

ALLEGING THAT the registration of a murder case against two ABVP office-bearers including State president Shashiranjan Akela was a `conspiracy? of the administration under pressure from Congress to implicate the organisation, ABVP on Thursday announced a peaceful Statewide agitation starting Friday to protest and demand the revoking of Section 302 charges.

ALLEGING THAT the registration of a murder case against two ABVP office-bearers including State president Shashiranjan Akela was a `conspiracy’ of the administration under pressure from Congress to implicate the organisation, ABVP on Thursday announced a peaceful Statewide agitation starting Friday to protest and demand the revoking of Section 302 charges.

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In a press conference held today, national secretary of ABVP Vishnu Dutt Sharma also reiterated the allegation that it was actually the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) who with the support of the Congress created massive ruckus in Madhav College campus and manhandled teachers leading to the death of Prof Sabharwal.

A CD showing clippings of NSUI and Congressmen breaking the police barricade to enter the college premises was also shown to the media.

However, the NSUI has said that this footage was shot between 11.30 am and noon on the day - when the Congress and NSUI workers had indeed broken the barricade. But ABVP workers were also present during this time and police had used mild force to chase everyone out of the college campus, state spokesman of NSUI Syed Jafar said.

The `murder’ of Prof Sabharwal happened at around 2.25 pm according to eyewitnesses and the postmortem report and during this time only a ABVP delegation was inside the college campus, while the Congress and NSUI workers had already been arrested under Section 151 as part of the Jail Bharo agitation quite a distance away from college, Jafar said.

LEGAL ACTION: Sharma also charged that one of the electronic media channels was continuously airing footage wherein a NSUI office-bearer is seen along with Prof HS Sabharwal inside a channel gate of the Madhav College saying those present in footage were ABVP members.

Sharma said the organisation will be initiating legal action against this channel for maligning the image of ABVP. He said the CD will be handed over to CID for investigation. He also said legal opinion will be sought on the arrest of Akela and Vimal Tomar on murder charges.

He said from Friday, ABVP units across the State will undertake a dharna and demonstration to protest this `conspiracy’. NSUI: Meanwhile, the NSUI claimed that in the Capital, that police uprooted a tent and chased away NSUI workers who were preparing to hold a silent dharna before the Chief Minister’s residence (Polytechnic Square) at noon today.

NSUI spokesman said later NSUI members again gathered at the Polytechnic Square and raised slogans against the administration and Chief Minister for trying to scuttle the democratic right of the organisation to protest.

Jafar also said that the booking of Shashiranjan Akela and Vimal Tomar under Section 302 within 12 hours of the Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan giving them a clean chit was clear proof that the Chief Minister was trying to shield the ABVP.