HYDERABAD: For the third consecutive day, Osmania University remained tense on Tuesday. While students staged protests, one organised by ABVP from Arts College to VC Lodge saw over 300 participants. Police, meanwhile continued to detain students. As many as 17 students were taken into preventive custody and released later.“We took 17 students, 10 from ABVP and seven general students into preventive custody and released them within an hour. The 22 students who were arrested on Monday were sent into judicial remanded. Only two of them got bail,” said V Ashok Reddy, inspector, OU.
The inspector added that there were no police deployed on the campus. Students, however, said that over a 100 police personnel are still on the campus. They alleged that police presence was a way administration was trying to arm-twist the students into giving up their fight for their rights. Pagidipally Srihari, state joint secretary ABVP and a PhD scholar said that despite staging a peaceful protest, the students were arrested.
“The vice chancellor himself is complaining against the students. The administration is giving them a free hand to deal with any way they want. The result is that now for every small issue, police is called on the campus,” said M Anji, a PhD scholar from the University.
Talking about the atmosphere on the campus, Krishank Manne, another student, said that barring the lathi charge, the situation on the campus remained as tense as it was on Monday. “They beat up the students on Monday and damaged the hostel property and now, they don’t even want students to protest. Instead of thinking of ways to resolve the issue, the administration and police is fuelling it further,”he said.
Ahead of the ABVP’S state-wide bandh, examinations scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday of OU and all its constituent, affiliated and autonomous colleges, had been postponed.