AGENCIES / ALIGARH
The Uttar Pradesh police today said there was no primary evidence against 14 students of Aligarh Muslim University against whom sedition case has been filed here. A police official said that if the accusation cannot be justified, the charges will be dropped.
“We are not so much casual that we will sustain such charges against students if there is no evidence. We will absolutely drop it. But we need to be confirmed that there is no evidence to back this charge,” said Aligarh’s senior police officer Akash Kulhari.
The police action had drawn widespread criticism from the opposition. Calling it an example of “state terror”, he state’s key opposition leader Mayawati had called it “condemnable”.
The case — filed on Tuesday following a complaint by a BJP youth wing leader — has triggered a political row, with the opposition leaders accusing the state’s BJP government of bias.
Mukesh Kumar Lodhi had alleged that he was attacked outside the university on Tuesday. The students beat him up after seeing BJP stickers on his vehicle, he said. They also shot at him and his associates, and shouted anti-India, pro-Pakistan slogans, his complaint read.
But no slogans can be seen in the video evidence he submitted, the police said. “If there is no evidence, sedition charges would be dropped,” an officer told the media.
Accusing the state of freely using the controversial law against sedition, Mehbooba Mufti, the former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, tweeted: “Expected. But it does raise pertinent questions: 1) Was UP police in collusion with mediapersons who created a ruckus in AMU? 2) From JNU to AMU, why are students being targeted? Is it because they are educated enough not to fall for divisive politics?”
Meanwhile students of Jamia Millia Islamia took out a protest demonstration here on Wednesday to condemn the incident that took place at the Aligarh Muslim University on Tuesday. The protesters also burnt the effigy of Republic TV’s Editor Arnab Goswami.
At AMU on Tuesday, a scuffle between students and crew of the channel took place when the students asked them to go out of the campus as they were not invited to cover an event of the AMU Students Union. At this, one of the journalists of the channel allegedly used foul language for the university and the students, leading to outrage among the students.
In solidarity with the AMU, Jamia Millia students in Delhi took out the protest demonstration. Carrying placards with Arnab’s photo captioned as “Hater”, the marchers were shouting slogans against the channel and the journalist.
“I was outraged when I heard that Republic TV’s journalist had used the word “university of terrorists” for AMU. We are holding this protest march to condemn the incident,” said a Jamia student.