High Court pulls up UP cops for Lucknow University vandalism

LUCKNOW: The Allahabad High Court on Friday pulled up the Uttar Pradesh Police for not responding promptly to the complaint of Lucknow University authorities on the incident of vandalism on its campus earlier this week.

The Lucknow bench of the high court expressed indignation when the DGP, Lucknow SSP, LU vice chancellor, registrar and proctor appeared before it on summons in connection with the incident.

The bench of justices Vikram Nath and Rajesh Singh directed police authorities to file an affidavit on their action in the matter. The matter will be next heard on July 16.

Twenty-five expelled students of the LU had assaulted the VC and teachers on July 4.

The court, which took suo motu cognisance of the matter on the basis of newspaper reports, also asked the university to give suggestions as to what should be done to control hooliganism on the campus.

The high court had on Thursday issued summons to top LU officials, besides the UP DGP to explain the attack, prompting the police chief to ask an inspector general rank officer to probe the campus clashes.

Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police OP Singh swung into action and handed over the the probe into the violence to Lucknow Range IGP Sujeet Pandey, transferred Circle Officer Anurag Singh and suspended university police outpost in-charge Pankaj Mishra.

The DGP’S action came after a delegation of LU teachers led by Vice Chancellor SP Singh called on him.

The DGP assured the VC of strict action against those who indulged in violence and asked the teachers to go back to work.

While issuing summons, the Lucknow bench of the high court also ordered Lucknow senior superintendent of police to be present before it and explain the incident and why the police did not respond promptly when LU authorities informed it about the imminent attack.

The court had also asked the two top police officers to detail steps taken in the wake of violence to improve the security situation in the university campus.

The court took on record the copies of a Hindi and an English daily and directed its registry to register the matter as a Public Interest Litigation with its title as ‘Lucknow University Vandalism’.