HC pulls up police for inaction against campus vandalism
You have thrown her to wolves. You are feeding wolves by not separating them from the sheep. The head of an institution is resisting from going to her office...How worse law and order situation can be?.
The Delhi High Court on Thursday pulled up the city police for its inaction when a woman Dean of Delhi University’s Campus Law Centre (CLC) was held hostage in her office last week by protesting students.
A bench of justice Siddharth Mridul and justice Mukta Gupta pulled up the police for not taking any action when the protest turned violent, the Dean’s office vandalised and she was threatened.
“You have thrown her to wolves. You are feeding wolves by not separating them from the sheep,” the bench remarked.
Ved Kumari, the Dean of CLC who broke down while narrating the incident to the court, alleged that the students had entered her office and threatened her with dire consequences in the presence of police personnel.
Claiming that there was lawlessness on the campus for the past one year and several complaints to the police had not been acted upon, she alleged that during the protests, the students threatened her saying “tumhe muh dikhane layak nahin chhodenge (you will not be in a position to show your face).”
The high court had on its own initiated proceedings relating to the reported violence during a protest by the Law Faculty students on May 19 against the Dean for not being allowed to sit in the year’s semester examination on grounds of shortage of attendance.
The court asked the Delhi Police Commissioner, Delhi University Vice Chancellor, CLC’s incharge Prof Usha Tandon and Dean Ved Kumari to file their affidavits by July 11 regarding the incident which occurred inside the CLC precincts in May and December last year and again on May 19.
She also said the incident happened in the presence of police officials who were not doing anything except videographing it and had asked her if she wanted to compel the students to commit suicide. She said thereafter, she feared going to her office.
“The head of an institution is resisting from going to her office when she is required there the most. How worse law and order situation can be?,” the bench observed.