Sack VC, set up probe for BHU lathi-charge: Cong

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Monday hit out at the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh over a lathi-charge on women students of the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) and demanded the immediate sacking of the vice chancellor and a judicial probe by a sitting High Court judge into the incident.

Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s silence over the “preposterous and shocking” incident, and asked what his stand was on the “atrocity” perpetrated on the students in Varanasi, his parliamentary constituency.

Describing the VC as “incorrigible” and “insensitive”, Tewari asked Modi if such a person could head an institute of academic excellence like the BHU.

“We demand that the President of India, who is the visitor of the university, immediately take cognisance of what has happened in BHU and sack the vice chancellor,” he told reporters here.

Attacking the BJP and its rule in Uttar Pradesh, Tewari said the government had been been a “failure” on all fronts and accused it of “shedding crocodile tears”.

“We demand an inquiry by a sitting High Court judge that should go into all the facts and circumstances as to how this atrocity was perpetrated and hold all those persons who were responsible for ordering this lathi-charge to account,” Tewari said.

The former Union minister recalled the words of nationalist leader and BHU founder Madan Mohan Malviya, saying those who set up the university created a very secular and pluralistic centre of learning that catered to all communities.

He said at the time of its creation, Malviya had said, “India is not a country of the Hindus only; it is a country of the Muslims, the Christians and the Parsis, too. The country can gain strength and develop itself only if people of different communities in India live in mutual goodwill and harmony”.

The Congress leader, while questioning Modi’s silence, asked, “We would like to know from the Prime Minister of India where does he stand on this atrocity which has been perpetrated on women students in his own parliamentary constituency”.

He also asked Modi whether a person who is “so insensitive” to the genuine concerns of students deserved to be the university VC.

“The incorrigible vice chancellor of this university, rather than being sympathetic to the students, turned around and told the girls that if you are so conscious of your modesty, why do you step out after 6 O’clock in the evening,” Tewari claimed.

He said rather than empathising with them, the university “colluded in the most barbaric lathi-charge”.

He also took a dig at the BJP’S ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ campaign and said the incident was the “perpetration of the most unspeakable atrocities” against the students who were protesting against alleged molestation and were seeking a safer campus.

A number of students, including women, and two journalists were injured in a baton-charge by the police in BHU where a protest against alleged sexual harassment turned violent on Saturday night. PATNA: Rebel JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav on Monday blamed the BJP governments at the Centre and in Uttar Pradesh for the “barbaric” lathicharge on Banaras Hindu University (BHU) students.

“The students were staging a protest over a genuine demand. It was a small matter but the administration in Varanasi resorted to a barbaric lathicharge on them,” he told reporters at the airport here.

“The BHU is among the oldest educational institutions in the country. Such a sordid event has never happened anywhere in the country in the 70 years since Independence. This is the reason we are fighting against such forces,” Yadav said.

A number of students, including women, and two journalists were injured in a lathicharge by the police in the BHU, where a protest against an alleged eve-teasing incident turned violent on Saturday night.

Accompanied by suspended JD(U) Rajya Sabha member Ali Anwar and former MP Arjun Rai among others, Yadav said he would tour Bihar for four days, starting on Monday, to take feedback from the people against the Bjp-led NDA government at the Centre.

He attacked the Narendra Modi government for allegedly not honouring its poll promises in the first three years of its rule.

“Modi had made promises like creating two crore jobs for the youth every year and enhancing the minimum support price to farmers, but none of the promises was kept,” Yadav alleged.

He added that going by the prime minister’s words, six crore jobs should have been created in the country by now, but instead, three crore jobs were lost “due to demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax (GST)”.

Yadav also came down heavily on the JD(U)-BJP government, headed by Nitish Kumar, in Bihar on the lawand-order situation in the state.

“The law-and-order (in Bihar) is ruined,” he alleged. NEW DELHI: RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav has sought two weeks to appear before the CBI for questioning in connection with a case of alleged graft in giving the maintenance contract for two IRCTC hotels to a private firm, sources said on Monday. The contracts were given when Yadav was railway minister. Yadav, who was summoned by the CBI for the second time to appear before the investigating team, sent his lawyer who submitted the request seeking two weeks time for questioning, the CBI sources said. They said the agency was processing the request and would take a call on future course of action.

The lawyer did not say anything about Tejashwi Yadav, the RJD leader’s son and former deputy chief minister of Bihar, who is summoned in the case tomorrow, they said.

They had been called on September 11 and 12. Lalu Yadav did not turn up, citing an ongoing court case in Ranchi where his presence was required, while Tejashwi claimed he had political commitments to take care of.

The case pertains to allegations that Lalu Yadav, as railway minister, handed over the maintenance of two hotels run by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation, a subsidiary of the Indian Railways, in Ranchi and Puri to Sujata Hotel, a company owned by Vinay and Vijay Kochhar, in return for a prime plot of three acres in Patna through a benami company.

The FIR alleged that the RJD leader, as the railway minister, abused his official position for extending undue favours to the Kochhar and acquired a “high value premium land” through a benami firm Delight Marketing Company. NEW DELHI: A special court on Monday rejected the CBI’S plea to interrogate retired Chhattisgarh High Court judge Ishrat Masroor Quddusi and two others in custody for three more days in an alleged medical college corruption case.

Special Judge Manoj Jain sent Quddusi, B P Yadav, a medical college chairman, and Biswanath Agrawala, an alleged middleman, to 14-day judicial remand.

Three others who were sent to jail after their custody was not sought by the probe agency were B P Yadav’s son Palash Yadav of Prasad Institute of Medical Science in Lucknow, alleged hawala operator Ramdev Saraswat and one Bhawna Pandey.

During the proceedings in a packed court room, the CBI sought the custody of Quddusi, B P Yadav and Agrawala alleging they were not cooperating in the probe and had to be quizzed regarding similar cases involving the 46 medical colleges debarred by the government from admitting students due to sub-standard facilities.

Prasad Institute of Medical Sciences is one of the 46 debarred institutes.

The probe agency alleged that Quddusi had obtained an instalment of gratification from B P Yadav and it needed to investigate how it was paid.

Opposing the CBI plea, advocate Vijay Aggarwal, appearing for Quddusi and Saraswat, argued that there were illegalities in the arrest.

He argued that Quddusi, who has also served as a judge in Orissa High Court, was arrested on September 19 but was not produced in court within 24 hours of arrest.

Alleging that the CBI had falsely implicated the accused, advocate S K Sharma, counsel for B P Yadav, submitted that no new facts have emerged and no progress has been made by the agency during the 4-day custody of all the accused.

Adding to this, Aggarwal, on behalf of the former judge, said the accused was being forced to speak when he had nothing to say or reveal. “He has the right to remain silent under Article 20(3) of the Constitution,” the advocate said.

Bail applications for Quddusi and Pandey were moved in the court which will be heard on September 27.

Seeking their remand, the CBI submitted that the accused were required to be interrogated in order to unearth the names of public servants involved in this case as well as in other instances of similar 45 colleges which were debarred.

In the last hearing, the CBI had alleged that Rs 1.86 crore were recovered and “a larger nexus needed to be considered as 46 colleges were debarred”.

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