LUCKNOW: Taking a strong note of vandalism in Lucknow University by a group of 25-30 expelled students and outsiders, the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court on Thursday issued summon to state Director General of Police OP Singh, Senior Superintendent of Police, Lucknow, Deepak Kumar asking them to appear in the court on Friday to explain as to why police did not respond promptly when the LU authorities informed it about the imminent assault by the students incident.
The court further asked the top cops to come prepared with a reply as to what steps were being taken to spruce up security on the university campus. Besides, the court also required the presence of Vice-Chancellor, Registrar and Proctor of the university in order to provide it necessary assistance in the matter.
Meanwhile, the DGP removed Circle Officer and suspended police outpost in-charge deployed on the campus for dereliction of duty. He also ordered a probe into the assault by the students targeting teachers and police response to the situation. The probe would be conducted by I-G Lucknow range.
Notably, LU V-C and other senior officials met the DGP seeking better security arrangements on the campus on Thursday. However, a High Court division bench, comprising Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Rajesh Singh Chauhan issued summons after taking suo-motu cognizance of the brawl through media reports. The court took on record the copies of a Hindi and an English language daily newspapers directing its registry to put it as Public Interest Litigation with title ' Lucknow University Vandalism'.
Expressing its displeasure over 'supine' approach of the local police, the bench said: "It is unfortunate and extremely painful that the students have the courage and audacity to enter the premises from where they were expelled and tried to create physical violence and attacked the Vice Chancellor, teachers and other staff of the University." The court also observed that the newspaper reports mentioned that the police was informed by the university administration about the likelihood of the expelled students creating ruckus, even then the local police did not take appropriate measures to control the situation.
The court posted the matter for next hearing at 10:15 am on Friday, July 6, 2018. It may be recalled that a group of 25-30 students had attacked and assaulted over a dozen teachers, senior administrative officials, employees and guards on Lucknow University campus on Wednesday. The students, claiming themselves to be the members of Samajwadi Chhatra Sabha (students wing of Samajwadi Party) were joined on Wednesday by outsiders belonging to left wing AISA and anti-social elements in protesting over varsity's decision to deny admissions in PG courses to those expelled candidates who had created ruckus and disrupted the convoy of CM Yogi Adityanath on June 7, last year.
Meanwhile, as a mark of protest against the assault on varsity teachers, all the degree colleges affiliated to Lucknow University decided to remain closed since Friday till further orders. However, Lucknow University Teachers' Association (LUTA) had called an emergency meeting to condemn attack on the teachers and demand action against the trouble makers soon.