TROUBLE AT HYD UNIV,
HYDERABAD: Fresh protests broke out in Hyderabad Central University on Wednesday as students intensified their demand for removal of vicechancellor Podile Appa Rao, whom they accused of pushing Dalit PhD student Rohith Vemula to suicide in January.
More than 70 protesters were detained as they demonstrated on and outside the campus. “Killer VC leave the campus … Long live Rohith Vemula,” they shouted.
They marched towards the VC’s official home where he was holding a friction-filled meeting of t he academic council.
T he chief controller of examinations, Professor Krishna, resigned from his post after questioning Appa Rao’s moral right to continue as VC.
Student union president Zuhail KP and general secretary Raju Kumar Sahu boycotted the meeting.
Police put pickets, barricades, and additional men to prevent a rerun of the unrest that engulfed the campus on March 23 during violence- marred protests against Appa Rao’s return after two months of leave.
Security was further tightened after the Joint Action Committee for Social Justice (JACSJ), a group campaigning for Vemula, rallied supporters to protest the “violence unleashed on students” since the VC’s return.
It demanded immediate removal and arrest of Appa Rao on the basis of a case registered against him under the SC/ST prevention of atrocities act in January after Vemula’s death.
The group said the court has not given the VC anticipatory bail, though he had approached six times.
Dozens of students from other institutes and members of Dalit and other social organisations congregated at the main gate in support of the protest call.
The protesters broke open the gates when they were not allowed in as the ban on outsider entry was still on. Policemen caught their protesters and bundled them into vans.
“How long can Appa Rao run the university with police force,” asked student leader Zuhail.