No baton charge, eve-teasing incident a conspiracy against me: BHU vice chancellor

Several students, mostly women, and policemen were wounded in clashes after university guards and policemen cane-charged protesters at the Banaras Hindu University.

Banaras Hindu University (BHU) vice chancellor Girish Chandra Tripathi said police didn’t baton-charge female students, but only used force to drive away anti-social elements who hurled stones and vandalised the campus on the night of September 23.

Police deployed outside Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi on Monday as Samajwadi Party workers protest against police action on girl students. (PTI)

The vice-chancellor also dubbed the eve-teasing incident as part of a larger conspiracy to instigate female students against him. “I will not tolerate this,” he said.

Since the day I took over as vice-chancellor, I have been treating the students, professors and other faculty members of BHU as my own family. However, some anti-social elements couldn’t digest my honest way of working. These people – in association with anti-social elements – hatched this conspiracy against me,” he said.

Defending the police in a press statement issued late on Monday, Tripathi said: “There was no baton-charge on any girl on the varsity premises during the intervening night of September 23 and 24. Action has been taken against criminal and anti-social elements who (vandalised) varsity property.”

Tripathi said that the molestation victim and her friends had called him to say that unknown people were conducting a dharna in front of the gate. “She also said that they were not allowing her or her friends to leave the protest venue. They were, in a way, holding her hostage.”

The vice chancellor went on to claim that the victim requested him to visit Triveni hostel to conduct a dialogue on the matter. “So I decided to go there. However, many anti-social elements waylaid me at the gate and began hurling stones as well as petrol bombs,” he said.