JNU files complaint against students for ‘assaulting’ dean

NEWDELHI: The Jawaharlal Nehru University administration has accused a group of students, led by the varsity’s students’ union, of assaulting an official inside the administration building during a protest over recent hike in hostel mess charges.

The university recently hiked the hostel mess fee, including refundable mess security, annual utensils charges and establishment charges from the existing rates. The refundable mess security has been increased from Rs 2,700 to Rs 4,500. Similarly, establishment charges that are paid every semester have been increased from Rs 550 to Rs 1,100.

Students have been protesting against the move and are demanding that the administration roll back the hike and also form a committee to deliberate on the issue again.

On Tuesday, Pramod Kumar, registrar, issued a statement and said that the students’ union had called for a protest at dean of students’ (DOS) Umesh Ashok Kadam office on Monday morning. The DOS invited the student representatives into his chamber for a discussion of their demands.

“While the discussion was going on, around 2.30pm more than 15 agitating students barged into the DOS office and created a ruckus. They shouted slogans, latched the door and blocked it with a sofa. When the DOS tried to go out of his office for lunch, they pushed, hurled abusive language and manhandled him,” the statement said.

He said the security guards brought the DOS out of his office

later and took him to the JNU health centre for a medical check-up.

“JNU administration condemns this physical assault on DOS and the unacceptable violent behavior of JNUSU-LED agitators. The security unit of JNU has filed a police complaint and the chief proctor’s office will investigate this incident and take appropriate action as per university rules,” Kumar said.

Simone Zoya Khan, JNUSU vice-president, however, denied the charges and said the protest was peaceful. “We sat with the DOS for hours but he was not willing to listen to us. Students only requested that he listens to our demand before he left. It has become a habit of the administration to blame everything on the union and student,” she said.