Student leaders on hunger strike taken into custody
LUCKNOW After expelled student leaders thrashed teachers at the University of Lucknow on Wednesday, the police forcibly took student leaders Pooja Shukla and Gaurav Tripathi into custody.
They were sitting on indefinite hunger strike against varsity’s decision of not giving them admission for showing black flag to chief minister Yogi Adityanath last year in June.
Pooja Shukla said, “The police action of forcibly taking me into custody for staging indefinite hunger strike was uncalled for. Cops let the troublemakers flee from the scene and took us into custody.”
Supporters of Pooja said she was taken into custody and was also assaulted by police while she was being taken to Gosainganj police station which is 25 km away from the university.
Some of her supporters went to police station demanding her release, said Athar Husain, director, Centre for Objective Research and Development. Later she was released.
The support for Pooja Shukla’s admission was swelling as after former LU VC Prof Roop Rekha Verma, senior LU professor Ramesh Dixit of Nationalist Congress Party, social worker Athar Hussain, Samajwadi Party spokeserson Juhie Singh, Dr Kafil and several others visited those sitting on hunger strike.
SP spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary in a statement condemned university’s decision of not giving them admission at LU. Pooja said, “We were getting support from Samajwadi Party, Congress and NCP. Yet LU refused to give admission.”
When contacted, vice chancellor SP Singh said admission will be given only on the basis of merit. “There are certain conditions on the basis of which we admit students. We cannot give admission to trouble makers on campus as they may again disturb the peaceful academic atmosphere on campus,” he said.
The university also said that the students concerned had given an undertaking not to apply for future courses in LU after the demonstration against the chief minister.
To recall, on June 7 last year, a number of student leaders belonging to the All India Students’ Association and the Samajwadi Party’s Chhatra Sabha had obstructed the CM’s cavalcade and waved black flags opposing his visit to the university. The police had arrested 11 of them.
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