New Delhi, Jan. 17: Police prevented a protest march by students to the HRD ministry on the first anniversary of the suicide of the University of Hyderabad scholar, Vemula Rohith, today.
The march of less than 200 students, mostly from JNU and Delhi University, from Mandi House in central Delhi was stopped by the police at the intersection of Janpath and Tolstoy Marg, around 2km from Parliament.
Their Insaaf march was to demand justice for Rohith and JNU student Najeeb Ahmed, who went missing after clashes with the RSS-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad.
The police asked them to proceed to the protest plaza at Jantar Mantar Road, a short distance away, but the students insisted on turning left on to Janpath towards the HRD ministry at Shastri Bhawan.
After a brief exchange between the police officers and the students, the cops began rounding up the protesters and hustling them into buses. The police did not use lathis.
Apart from Delhi police, Central Reserve Police Force, Indo-Tibetan Border Police and the Sashastra Seema Bal were also at the scene.
Dipsita Dhar, the president of SFI's JNU unit and the granddaughter of former CPM MLA Padma Nidhi Dhar, was taken off-guard when a male CRPF constable allegedly caught her by the neck.
"There were journalists recording the protests when a policeman hit a protester. When I went close, he suddenly caught me by my neck. I'm not hurt badly but it was unprovoked and shocking," she alleged.
Two women Delhi police constables came and escorted her away. Dhar and others were released two hours later from Parliament Street police station.
Three ITBP constables were reported to have kicked students while hustling them in to buses. One of them, Om Prasad, a JNU history scholar and the general secretary of the CPIML-Liberation backed Revolutionary Youth Association, shouted back: "Why do you kick me?" He was then whisked away by the SSB and Delhi police officers.
"The march was without permission and we were not informed. We had to remove them as they held up traffic. We have not received reports of any brutality. If any proof is brought to us, we will take action," New Delhi DCP B.K. Singh said.
Several prominent JNU student leaders - union office-bearers, former JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar and history scholar Umar Khalid - were detained today. They expressed shock at the police action.
A few men gathered around shouting "Dilli police zindabad!" and "Shoot the traitors!" "These people study on our nation's money and call for the break up of this country. Now they take the names of Najeeb and Rohith to mislead the youth," Sukhdev Bisht told this paper.
