Hyderabad, February 18: Tension gripped the Osmania University campus once again on Wednesday after police allegedly pushed two students from the terrace of the Faculty Club building in their attempt to nab OU students’ joint action committee members. The police, however, termed the allegation as baseless.
According to students, about 15 task force sleuths arrived at the club where the JAC members were discussing a strategy to lay siege to the State Assembly on February 20 to press for the resignation of elected representatives from Telangana. The sleuths detained two JAC members who had ventured out of the building.
‘‘After nabbing them, the police called out JAC member Rajaram Yadav as if some harm was being done to the students. We rushed out to see what had happened when police pounced upon us,’’ Ch Venkatesh, a JAC member, told Express.
The students ran helter-skelter and a couple of them went to the terrace, he said. “Ramesh and Sarath caught hold of a pole to avoid being dragged by the police. As they resisted, the sleuths beat them up and later, pushed them from the terrace,” Venkatesh alleged. Some JAC members, who managed to escape, rushed to nearby hostels and mobilised students but by then, the police had left the place leaving the two injured there. The duo were shifted to the Gandhi hospital where their condition is said to be stable.
Following the incident, the students staged a demonstration in front of the OU police station protesting the entry of the police into the campus in gross violation of the high court directions.
They called off the protest after the police released three of the JAC members. But two others were arrested for their alleged involvement in the recent violence. The two are Rajaram Yadav and N Srikanth Rao who were charged under Section 307 (attempt to murder) among others.
–Agencies