Protests on campus, nine students booked for assaulting scholar

Hundreds of student and political activists staged demonstrations in Chennai on Wednesday, intensifying protests against a ban on cow slaughter and alleged assault of an IIT Madras scholar for participating in a campus beef festival.

A section of IIT-M students took out a separate procession, demanding action against nine students accused of assaulting R Sooraj, who was left with a severely damaged right eye.

Police said several activists of the leftist Students’ Federation of India (SFI) were detained during the protests outside the IIT Madras. The slogan-shouting activists ate beef in a symbolic protest against the ban.

Nine students have been booked for the alleged assault on Sooraj. They are yet to be arrested. Police said in Chennai the students were booked for criminal intimidation, rioting and wrongful restraint. Sooraj has also been booked on the basis of a complaint filed by one of his attackers, Manish Kumar.

The opposition DMK also criticised the ban, saying a situation had arisen where “we should eat only what the PM desires”.

“So, this ban, what we eat is now being restricted...The civil liberties guaranteed by the Constitution are being snatched. Freedom is being snatched,” said party working president MK Stalin, who led the protest.

He also warned of “another Marina revolution”, referring to the pro-Jallikkatu protests held by scores of volunteers in January, following which the banned bull-taming sport was allowed.

The protesting IIT students lodged a complaint with the dean of the institution and demanded strict action against those guilty. The students are demanding expulsion of the alleged attackers, said to be members of the right-wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).

The dean has formed a committee to examine the issue.

Not satisfied with the response of the administration, the students have decided to intensify the protests. “The adminstration has not even gone to meet Sooraj, who was injured in the eye, and financial aid to him was still not given. The attackers were not even suspended so far,” said Abhinav Surya, a protester.

Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan has condemned the attack and requested his Tamil Nadu counterpart Edappadi K Palaniswami to take action against the guilty.