Patna: The Patna University's (PU's) Wheeler Senate Hall on Monday turned into a battlefield with two groups of students exchanging blows in the presence of senior university officials and police officers.
The violence began when elected members of Patna University Students' Union (Pusu) started reaching the varsity campus to take oath around 8.30am.
Divyanshu Bhardwaj, whose candidature as Pusu president the Patna High Court recently restored, vice-president Yoshita Patwardhan and three others central panel members along with college representatives were to take oath at the Wheeler Senate Hall at 9am on Monday.
But members of the Left-backed students' union, Pappu Yadav's Jan Adhikar Chhatra Morcha, NSUI and the Chhatra RJD were opposing the event.
When the winning candidates reached the oath-taking venue with their supporters, those opposed to the function restricted them from entering.
The minor altercation soon turned into a group clash. Those opposing the oath-taking did not even allow PU teachers and officials to enter the Wheeler Senate Hall.
Police personnel deployed there charged the agitating students with canes. Many were injured. In retaliation, the students pelted the police with stones in which some police personnel bore injuries.
"We were staging a peaceful protest but police personnel, on instructions from the Patna University, beat us up," said Sushil Kumar, state general secretary of the All India Students' Federation.
"The police didn't even spare girl students."
He claimed the oath-taking function itself went against the recommendations of the Lyngdoh committee, considering that they were planning to appeal before a larger bench against the high court's single bench order.
But the PU administration claimed the function was organised after the Patna High Court restored the candidature of elected PU students' union president Divyanshu Bhardwaj. Patna High Court had on April 4 quashed PU vice-chancellor Rash Bihari Prasad Singh's order cancelling Divyanshu Bhardwaj's election as Patna University Students' Union president on March 13.
"The winning candidates were to take oath as per Patna High Court and Lyngdoh committee's recommendations," PU vice-chancellor Rash Bihari Prasad Singh said.
The police ad a tough time controlling the situation. After two-and-a-half hours, the winning candidates took oath at 11.30am.
Pusu secretary and Jan Adhikar Chhatra Morcha member Chand Azad tore up his oath paper to oppose the ceremony. The university administration has decided to take action against him in this regard.
