Hyderabad: The Joint Action Committee for Social Justice (University of Hyderabad) has accused the Cyberabad Police of illegally detaining 27 students and two faculty members.
The JAC said there was no clear information about the whereabouts of these 29 people who were picked up by the police on March 22. They said all efforts by the parents and other students to find them proved futile as the police officials were not disclosing any information. “None of the detained persons’ whereabouts are confirmed. The police is misleading the family members in open violation of their rights. None of the people were produced before the magistrate within 24 hours of their detention,” the JAC said in a press release on Thursday evening.
The JAC alleged that a total of 27 people have been falsely booked under 11 charges (147, 452, 324, 506, 427, 342, 353 r/w149 IPC,3 PDPPA, 324, 353, 332). There are several other FIRs being filed against the students. One of those FIRs that surfaced is filed by the university administration. The FIR contains names of 9 students including the students who were suspended along with Rohith. Along with the 9 names the FIR states ‘other students of UOH’. This means that anyone can be picked up by the police and slapped with false charges, the JAC said.
The JAC also condemned the closure of university messes and brutal beating up of a student, Uday Bhanu, who tried to cook food. “Cooking for ourselves has also become a crime in this campus,” it said.
“An atmosphere of fear and threat has been created in the university since Podile Appa Rao has decided to take charge. If Appa Rao continues, the legal process and the evidences of the case will get trampled and manipulated and many more students will be targeted and discriminated against,” the JAC alleged while demanding his immediate removal and arrest under Prevention of Atrocities Act.
The JAC also demanded dropping of all charges against students and faculty, de-militarisation of the campus and action against police for the unnecessary and targeted violence, false detention, misinformation about the detained people and physical and sexual assault of women students and faculty. (INN)