HYDERABAD: Members of various students organisations like All India Students Federation (AISF), Progressive Democratic Students Union (PDSU), Students Federation of India (SFI), Democratic Students Union (DSU), Telangana Vidyarthi Vedika (TVV) and Telangana Vidyarthi Sangham (TVS) from Osmania University, speaking to media on Saturday, attacked the Telangana government for issuing a Government Order (GO) according sanction to prosecute seven persons, against whom a police case was registered during Telangana agitation in 2013.
It may be mentioned, that in 2013, around 200 posters surfaced at various places in the university, including hostels. The posters, bearing an image of a person holding a rifle, asked the students to take up the path of armed struggle for realizing the separate state of Telangana and that only militant struggle will scare away the people belonging from Andhra Pradesh.
Following this, OU police station booked cases under Section 153A (promoting enmity between different groups of people and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) and 153B ( Imputations, assertions prejudicial to national-integration) of IPC. The posters were alleged to have been put up by Telangana People’s Liberation Front, a suspected Left Wing Extremist (LWE) organisation.
On Thursday, the law department released a GO which said, “Upon perusal of relevant records pertaining to the case, the government is satisfied and considered that the accused should be tried for the offences punishable under Sections 153A and 153B of IPC.”
Kota Srinivas, one of the seven accused in the posters case and state president of Telangana Vidyarthi Sangham, said, “Telangana government had promised to revoke all cases booked against people during the statehood agitation but it has been partial. Just because we have been criticizing the government for its poor functioning and its policies like passing the Private Universities bill, we are being targeted and the cases against us have been re-opened.” He added, “Moreover, the Chief Minister, K Chandrasekhar Rao himself should be prosecuted as he has earlier promised to implement the Maoist agenda and so should MP, K Kavitha who had also reiterated it.”