Violence mars second phase of student polls

TWO ACTIVISTS of the National Students Union of India (NSUI) were injured as police resorted to lathi-charge to disperse a mob that laid siege at the Bhanwarkuan police station demanding release of their mates who were arrested in the commotion at Government Arts and Commerce College (GACC) during the second and final phase of students? council elections today.

TWO ACTIVISTS of the National Students Union of India (NSUI) were injured as police resorted to lathi-charge to disperse a mob that laid siege at the Bhanwarkuan police station demanding release of their mates who were arrested in the commotion at Government Arts and Commerce College (GACC) during the second and final phase of students’ council elections today.

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Elections had to be cancelled in both GACC (Indore) and Madhav GACC (Ujjain), while incidents of sporadic violent protests were reported from Mahatma Gandhi Medical College (MGM) and Vaishnav Commerce College.

The situation became tense on GACC campus when ABVP activists accused the authorities of favouring NSUI and not letting them inside for submitting nomination forms till only 10 minutes remained while accepting the forms of NSUI supported candidates even after the fixed time. The situation took an ugly turn when NSUI activist and former GACC students’ council president Dharmendra Thakur, aided by Gaurav Randive and Pankaj Upadhyaya, tore the nomination form of an ABVP-supported candidate.

Enraged over this ABVP activists stormed the college and started pelting stones. Police removed both the groups from the campus and arrested Thakur and took him to Bhanwarkuan police station.

The ABVP activists still continued their protests and later forced the administration to cancel the elections. GACC election officer Sultan informed media persons of the cancellation of the elections citing the violence unleashed by the student leaders as the reason.

Acting principal and election patron Dr Pushplata Jain said that the decision of cancellation was taken in an emergency meeting of the staff council after the unruly scenes at the college gates. She alleged that police presence in the college was inadequate and it was their laxity that led to ugly situation. The Vice Chancellor, District Magistrate, Superintendent of Police, Additional Director Higher Education and other officials
were informed of the incident.

Meanwhile, the ABVP went to the Bhanwarkuan Square where they staged a chakka jam. As soon the management accepted the demand for cancellation, they moved on to other colleges. The NSUI activists who were standing at the college gates also rushed to the Bhanwarkuan police station and demanded the release of their leaders.

The activists gathered at the Bhanwarkuan police station, which resembled a virtual battleground with police and paramilitary forces dotting the area. Even as the NSUI activists tried to convince the officer on duty to release their leader Thakur to prevent the situation from flaring up, more irate activists suddenly descended upon the police station and tried to storm the TI chamber.

This left the police with no option but to use force to push them out of the police station. In the melee that ensued several activists were forced to flee and in the process tripped and fell over each other.

One activist, Ashish Choudhary, suffered head injuries and had to get the wound stitched. Another, Jeetu Patwari, was also seriously injured while some other activists also suffered mild injuries. The police also took in another activist, Rajneesh Verma, after the incident.

Later, NSUI activists led by Abhinandan ‘Tantu’ Sharma and Youth Congress president Devendra Singh Yadav sat on a dharna in front of the police station. Former ministers Sajjan Singh Verma and Tulsi Silawat, City Congress president Pramod Tandon, former City Congress president Ujagar Singh Chaddha and Kripa Shankar Shukla also arrived at the spot and took TI Arun Mishra and SDM Chandramauli Shukla to task, alleging that they had acted like puppets of the BJP Government.

Following talks between the administrative officials and Congress leaders all arrested youths were release without registering any cases.