9 students booked for assaulting IIT-M scholar, protests rage on
CHENNAI: Nine students have been booked for the alleged assault on an IIT Madras scholar for participating in a campus beef festival even as hundreds of student and political activists staged demonstrations in Chennai on Wednesday, intensifying protests against the ban on cow slaughter.
A section of IIT-M students took out a separate procession, demanding action against the 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.
Police said, the nine students who are yet to be arrested, were booked for criminal intimidation, rioting and wrongful restraint. Sooraj has also been booked on 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 in January. The protesting IIT students lodged a complaint with the dean of the institute and demanded action against those guilty. The students are demanding expulsion of the alleged attackers, said to be members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad. The dean has formed a committee to examine the issue.