NSUI men burning Kailash effigy caned

NATIONAL STUDENTS Union of India (NSUI) activists were lathi-charged by the police when they tried to burn the effigy of PWD Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya for his alleged comments against the Governor outside the gates of the RNT Marg premises of the university on Tuesday.

NATIONAL STUDENTS Union of India (NSUI) activists were lathi-charged by the police when they tried to burn the effigy of PWD Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya for his alleged comments against the Governor outside the gates of the RNT Marg premises of the university on Tuesday.

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All top NSUI office-bearers, including State spokesman Jeetu Sharma, City president Abhinadan alias ‘Tantu’ Sharma, City spokesman Amit K Chaurasiya and activists Skaquil Raj, Deepak Wankhede, Vishwas Bhagat and Ashok Temle received a severe thrashing at the hands of the police.

Heavy police force from three police station areas deployed from Regal Square to Madhumilan Square snatched the effigy of the Minister from them and wielded the baton on them during the ensuing struggle. The police then took them to Chhoti Gwaltoli police station where, according to the activists, they were severely beaten and verbally abused by the policemen.

Top Congress politicians including former minister Sajjan Singh Verma, City Congress president Pramod Tandon, former MLA Ramlal Yadav and Kripa Shankar Shukla descended on the police station as soon as news of the police action spread.

TI A K Khare, who was accosted by several Congress leaders, was at a loss to explain the incident and pacify the irate
leaders.

Senior police officials, including ASP Manoj Shrivastav, CSP Irwin Shah and others rushed to the ‘gheraoed’ police station to prevent the tense situation from assuming larger proportions.

The Congressmen accused the police/administration of becoming puppets playing to the strings of their Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) masters. They accused them of showing laxity while the effigy of the Prime Minister is burnt in their presence and reacting violently to the petty issue of burning the effigy of a minister in the State and beating unarmed student leaders.

Verma said, “A demand to suspend the guilty at the earliest has been made and if it is not met the Congress will be forced to take stern action and convert the City into a ‘chhawni’.

The police has shown disrespect to the PM and Governor by not taking action in this light against those who burnt the effigy of the PM and by taking action against those opposing a minister who is most corrupt for he did not spare even Rs 150 pension of the poor and has a tainted record and who used derogatory terms to address the highest constitutional authority and the first citizen of the State.”

Tandon said, ‘‘BJP has let loose a reign of terror and is using the police force for this purpose. Policemen who have been posted in the City through the good offices of the minister in question are showing loyalty towards their political boss by committing such acts in the name of allegiance.”

Shukla and Yadav seconded the statements of the two and added that Congress was united on this issue and the guilty will not be allowed to go scot-free. The activists said that most of the guilty were plainclothes policemen from the crime branch attached with the police stations, but could not identify the accused policemen immediately.

Tantu and Jeetu Sharma said that they were merely trying to burn the effigy of the tainted minister on his remarks against the Governor when the policemen attacked them without incitement, thrashed them in public, took them to the police station all the while using the choicest of expletives and again beat them there.

In the medical examination that followed Tantu was diagnosed with a broken arm, while others were diagnosed with various levels of injury.

The activists are yet to identify the accused policemen and have given the names of a few whom they remembered from their name plates including SI Sohni, Shailendra Yadav and someone by the surname of Purohit.

They claim they could recognise others if they were brought before them. Meanwhile, the City is gripped with the apprehension of a backlash by the Congress activists and police higher-ups have called the leaders for a round of discussion at 9 pm.

If nothing comes out of the meetings, the City may witness some explosive action in the days to come.