J&K students ‘had no money for food, landlords insisted on rent’

“I thought they were students who had come to me for some problem related to education. I learned only later that they were carrying rods and other things. I can’t fathom why the incident took place,’’ said Kaul, who was discharged from a private hospital Tuesday.

On September 11, the higher education department wrote to all V-Cs asking them to provide relief to students from J&K. The circular asked the V-Cs to extend the deadline for payment of examination and other fees.

The police, however, made two arrests including that of VHP activist Ankit Choubey in connection with vandalism at Kaul’s office and have identified more than a dozen others amid allegations by teachers and staff that the police were not keen on going after the accused because they enjoyed patronage of the BJP.

Television footage and photographs carried by local newspapers clearly identify several activists involved in the attack. A local photographer said most of them were also involved in two recent scuffles with the police.

Ujjain SP Anurag said he had formed teams to search for the accused identified from television footage and photographs. The teachers and staff, who were on strike on Tuesday, accused a senior police officer of insisting that they should have named the accused in the FIR rather than expect the police to do so. The police officer argued that eyewitnesses either don’t name the accused in the FIR and when they do they turn hostile in the court.

About 70 students from J&K are pursuing their MPhil or PhD from the Vikram University. In January 2012, Sabir Ahmed, who was pursuing his MPhil in English, was shot at by two unidentified youth at a bus stand near the Ujjain district panchayat building. The 27-year-old had to be shifted to Indore for treatment because a bullet got lodged inside him. More than two-and-a-half years later, the police have made no headway in the case.