E-Paper
PU: Protests erupt outside V-C office over FIR against students
Nearly a month after PU V-C was heckled and a video had gone viral, an FIR was lodged against some students
Three days after a case was registered against four members of Panjab University’s student parties and others, the Joint Students Action Committee of PU held a protest outside the office of the vice-chancellor on Friday.
The station house officer of Sector 11 police station was also present to maintain order and the protest was carried out peacefully. The joint action committee comprises various parties including Students for Students (SFS), National Students Union of India (NSUI) and PSU (Lalkaar) among others.
Amandeep Singh of PSU (Lalkaar), one of the students who was named in the FIR and who convened the protest, said, “We will not be intimidated by such petty actions. Already we are facing trial in the case filed in 2017 regarding the fee-hike struggle. But police cases can’t stop us from fighting for our rights. We will continue to challenge anti-student agendas of the authorities and the BJP-RSS stooges on campus. We will not let authorities use false police cases against students anymore. We will not go to court for bail or trial. This time we will struggle till we get the case quashed by our unity.”
PU wardens also reached the protest site and a memorandum was submitted for cancelling of the FIRs. President of SFS Sandeep said, “This was a one-day protest for now, but we have given the authorities one week to get the FIR cancelled. We will intensify the protest if that is not done.”
He also added that rather than target students for exercising their freedom of speech, the authorities need to look into the complaints submitted against the dean student welfare (women), which the authorities are not investigating.
Over a month after the V-C was heckled in a video that had gone viral, a case under Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 341 (wrongful restraint) was registered.
