Academicians, activists demand judicial probe into BHU incident

 About 50 academicians and rights activists have written to President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding a judicial probe into the police lathi charge on the students of Banaras Hindu University.

They also demanded that accountability of the BHU authorities should also be fixed, saying the Vice Chancellor of the University Girish Chandra Tripathi has completely failed to ensure protection of the students “and their rights to free speech.”

“We demand immediate action be taken against the police for the brutal act, suspension of the SP/DIG, judicial inquiry of the event and meeting the demands of the students and ensure their treatment and safety. We demand accountability of the University authorities as students are living and studying within the University premises and their safety has to be guaranteed by the head of the institution,” they stated in a letter addressed to the President and the Prime Minister.

Aruna Roy, Nikhil Dey, Harsh Mander are among the rights activists who have signed the letters addressed to the President and the Prime Minister. Satish Deshpande and Apoorva Anand from Delhi University; Ayesha Kidwai and Nivedita Menon from the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) are among the academicians who have signed the letters.

Several students including women were injured on Saturday as police resorted to lathi charge on them. These students were holding a protest against eve-teasing when the incident took place.

A BHU spokesperson reportedly said that police used batons to control the situation as some “outsiders” joined the students protest and began pelting stones. Meanwhile, the Amnesty International India also demanded that University authorities “must not” turn a blind eye to complaints of sexual
harassment and discrimination.

“Students have a right to peaceful protest. The police say that some of the students threw stones at them, but that cannot be an excuse to baton-charge the women students who were staging a peaceful sit-in,” Amnesty International India programmes
director Asmita Basu said.