MADURAI: Five office-bearers of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI), including Madurai city district president Justin, district secretary David Rajadurai and Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) district functionary Ravi, from the Madurai Kamaraj University campus were detained on Wednesday as a precautionary measure ahead of a proposed anti-NEET protest.
Sources said the SFI and DYFI had announced a 48-hour protest condemning the arrest of anti-NEET protesters in New Delhi. Acting on this, personnel from the Nagamalai Pudukottai police station entered the university campus and detained the student leaders while they were attending classes. They were taken to the Nagamalai Pudukottai police station.
Democratic organisations condemned the police action, alleging that the detention of student leaders from inside university classrooms was aimed at suppressing opposition to the NEET.
According to a joint statement, members of the SFI and DYFI staged a sit-in protest near the Tamil Annai statue at Tamukkam Grounds on Tuesday night in support of the ongoing anti-NEET agitation led by the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) and Left student organisations in New Delhi. More than 50 protesters were detained by the police and released after midnight.
The organisations alleged that Wednesday’s detentions were carried out to prevent the student leaders from participating in the proposed protests. They said the police entering classrooms and detaining students amounted to an attack on academic freedom and democratic rights.