After student groups’ clashes, prohibitory orders in Pune’s SPPU campus till Nov 21

The prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) were issued by Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Sandeep Karnik on Tuesday night and will remain in force until November 21, a police officer said.

“Against the backdrop of recent events on the campus and in consultation with the authorities at the SPPU, prohibitory orders have been issued to prevent any further law and order issues on the premises and surrounding areas. The order prevents students from holding gatherings of more than four persons, holding rallies, chanting slogans, giving speeches etc. Those found in violation of orders can face legal action,” said the officer.

Prohibitory orders were issued after back-to-back clashes between students’ groups were reported on the campus in the recent past. (Express photo by Arul Horizon)

Around 40-50 police personnel were deployed at the gates of Savitribai Phule Pune University on Wednesday morning.

B Youvraj, president, New Socialist Alternative, and SFI state president Somnath Nirmal were accompanied by two policemen into the campus so they could hand over their letter to the vice chancellor demanding a violence-free and democratic campus environment.

Nirmal said, “We have cancelled our peace march after our conversation with the university and the police administration. All we want to do today is give a letter to the vice chancellor and we have spoken to both the university and police regarding this. Despite their earlier agreement, they have now stopped us from entering the premises. This is outright repression”.

Pro-vice-chancellor Parag Kalkar said he was unaware of any of these measures while the VC could not be reached.

Some students of SFI and ABVP had been involved in violent clashes last week. This was followed by an ‘objectionable’ graffiti on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on campus. The BJP city unit held a protest the next day in which four students of the left-leaning group New Socialist Alternative were injured.