NEW DELHI: Jawaharlal Nehru University Vice Chancellor Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar on Monday alleged that his wife was “confined” inside their residence by a group of students, who had gathered there to meet him to present their demands relating to the admission process.
On the other hand, the students’ union claimed that their president was allegedly assaulted by the security staff at the entrance gate at the VC’s residence and was admitted at the emergency ward of AIIMS.
“Few hundred students have broken into my residence at JNU and have confined my wife inside the house. She is alone at home and terrified. Very unfortunate,” the VC tweeted.In another tweet later, he said: “This evening few hundred students forcibly broke into my JNU residence and confined my wife inside home for several hours while I was away in a meeting. Is it the way to protest? Terrorising a lonely lady at home?”
While speaking to The Morning Standard, Kumar said some female guards had to take his wife to a hospital as she was “mentally traumatised”.
“She was confined inside the house. Even though there was no physical attack, you can imagine the mental trauma...”.According to protestors, JNUSU president N Sai Balaji fainted after he was allegedly beaten up by the security and was being treated at the hospital.
“We didn’t know that the VC wasn’t inside till the time he tweeted. We went to meet him. We have been trying to do the same for so many days. The students had returned to hostel an hour before the VC put this false allegation on Twitter,” one of them alleged.
According to the Delhi Police, the students reached the VC’s house at 6.30 pm. “The students reached his house and tried to enter. They were stopped by the security staff. Most of them had moved back to their hostels and the situation was under control,” a senior police officer said. No formal police complaint has been lodged in the case as of now.
Hunger strike
Students from the Jawaharlal Nehru University have been on a hunger strike for past seven days against the “anti-student and anti-university” prospectus. “We have been trying to meet the VC to talk about our demands. We have been protesting against three major issues, the division of MPhil and PhD into two different courses, the high fee for the MBA course and an online test for admission to MPhil,” Satish Chandra, a research scholar said