Day after Gorakhpur varsity clashes, 8 held; 9th student likely to be expelled

An FIR has been registered against 22 accused, of whom eight students have been expelled for their alleged role in Friday’s incident.

A day later, heavy police force was deployed on the campus and outside. One more accused, a student of Law who allegedly held V-C Rajesh Singh by the neck, has been identified from the video.

Preparations are going on to expel a ninth student and send his name to police to be included in the FIR, it was informed.

While all accused are said to be aligned to ABVP, the students’ body blamed Friday’s incident on alleged “dictatorship and insensitive attitude of the university administration towards students’ issues and fee hike” and demanded inquiry into police action on them. ABVP national general secretary Yagyavlakya Shukla demanded a detailed inquiry into the incident and alleged that a police lathi-charge on students protesting peacefully led to the scrap.

Demanding complete CCTV footage of the incident, Shukla blamed the university administration’s “insensitive attitude” for the violence.

But one professor of Science faculty said, “If timely action was taken on our complaint for the July 13 incident, these students would not have had the courage (for Friday’s violence).”

Asked about the earlier incident, chief proctor Satyapal Singh, who registered the FIR into Friday’s incident, said, “The university did all it could and had suspended four students for the July 13 incident. There is a system for everything; if one has to raise an issue there are ways to do it. We have not yet received a formal memorandum from these students.”

On what led to the fracas on July 13, Singh said, “We approached them for a dialogue when they were sitting outside the campus. They suddenly attacked us. I was hurt — there is a video of that — as were two more members of proctorial board. We gave application in the local police station for FIR but we were told that an investigation was going on. I do not want to say much.”

On alleged application being given on July 13, Circle officer, Cantonment, Yogendra Singh said, “No FIR was registered because nothing happened then. We had investigated. There was no evidence of any violence.”

“Teacher hatoshahit hota hai aisi ghatnao se (Teachers become demoralised with such incidents),” said Ved Prakash Rai, a professor in Law faculty who was in the middle of both incidents while trying to save the V-C from being attacked.

While professors are hesitant in speaking out, students, including those associated with other student organisations, allege bias in police action because the protestors were associated with one particular student group. “We had demanded action against those who attacked teachers and others, including the local police chowki in-charge on July 13,” one student said. “Even professors had given an application but police did nothing. Students face many problems — they have to wait for semesters for their results, lack of facilities, hike in fees, etc. But we cannot afford to even protest, as notices reach our home.”

While four students were suspended after July 13 incident, sources said recall of their suspension was one of the demands of the students protesting on Friday.

Many students said they have a long list of demand but are now more worried about the bad name that the incidents would bring to the university.

“We are in fifth semester of BA but have still not got our third semester examination result,” a BA third year student of the varsity said. “We have many issues but do not approve of what happened yesterday. We want to somehow complete our graduation here. I will never return (here) for PG. Such incidents will affect the value of our degree.”

Her classmate (names of students withheld to protect identity) said they prefer BHU or some college in Delhi if they are able to get the merit.

While their fee hike has been Rs 100 per semester, she said the bigger issues are lack of even facilities for which they are charged. She pointed out that BBA students have been most affected with the fee hike — it has been increased from Rs 18,000 per semester to Rs 50,000 per semester, she said.

The proctor said the decision to raise fees was taken only for “self-financed courses”, for which the varsity receives no government aid. “I cannot give the exact hike but can assure you that it is still far less than most universities, and only for self-financed courses,” the proctor said.

Earlier,V-C Rajesh Singh had told the media that the problem is only with students who are “indisciplined” or those who are “not even students” of the university. He said a dialogue is taking place and action will be taken as per law.