BBAU engineering students, professor come to blows
Students lodge police complaint, circulate video of incident on social media. Professor accuses them of abusing him and his dead mother
LUCKNOW: Engineering students of Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University (BBAU) and a professor exchanged blows on the campus late on Friday night. Later, the students lodged a complaint at Ashiana police station against Prof Kaman Singh for attacking them on campus.
Akhilesh Chandra Pandey, inspector Aashiana said, “The complaint was lodged under different IPC sections for attacking and voluntary causing injury to students.” The students even recorded a video of the professor running after them with a stick when they were staging a demonstration for his removal.
The incident took place when Prof Kaman Singh, head of the University Institute of Engineering and Technology (UIET) was leaving his office late night. The students alleged Prof Singh came out with a stick and started chasing away students who were staging a protest, though it was late night. “We recorded it on camera too and shared it on social media groups,” they said.
Prof Singh did not dismiss the students’ allegation but claimed that they were passing on selective information, not the entire incident. He said, “It all started when students started abusing my mother who died two years ago. They abused me too. I lost my cool. I tried to send home those innocent children who were forced by their seniors and other outsiders to stage protest against me. The students are circulating selective footage of last night’s incident.”
In another development, an audio clip of Prof Kaman Singh was circulated on WhatsApp in which he could be heard abusing an RSS activist on phone, asking him to come and meet him (Singh) in the university because the professor was of the view that it was this RSS member who instigated Friday’s agitation by students.
Prof Singh said he did call one Abhishek Mishra of the RSS who was earlier with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). Singh said Mishra was the brain behind the agitation on the campus. He said Mishra was not a student of the engineering department. He was pursuing PhD in School of Management Sciences.
In the audio clip, Mishra was heard saying that he would send this audio clip to the police and other higher authorities to expose Singh who was known for misbehaving with students. Singh said Abhishek had been troubling him for a certificate for taking part in a blood donation camp while the fact was that he did not donate blood in that camp.
When contacted, BBAU vice chancellor NMP Verma said he was aware of the incident. “The university is closed on Saturday and Sunday. I’m aware of the incident that took place on late Friday night. The students are going to the media with their side of the story. It is not right. The other side of the story should also be heard. Once the university opens on Monday, the matter will be looked into,” he said.
In view of the agitation, the university has now decided that the end-semester examination would include only those subjects for which the syllabus has been completed. The examination of these subjects would be held according to the announced schedule from December 7. Meanwhile, the subjects for which the syllabus is yet to be completed would be deferred and be held a week after the curriculum has been taught.