A case was filed against 22 students from University of Hyderabad for taking out a rally on Republic Day without permission. The students were booked under charges of wrongful restraint, unlawful Assembly, intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace and public nuisance. The students who were booked include Students' Union president Abhishek Nandan and general secretary Gopi Swamy.
On Sunday, the Students’ Union of the university took out a ‘Save Constitution’ rally from the campus, in protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the proposed nationwide National Register of Citizens. Holding flags, the students intended to march to the Ambedkar statue in Masjid Banda, which is near the UoH campus in Gachibowli. However, the police restricted the students within the campus by closing the gates.
In protest, the students sat on a dharna at the main gate and raised slogans against the police. The students didn’t have permission for the rally. Though the students had approached the Gachibowli police, police denied permission without any valid grounds, alleged students. The confrontation between police and the students lasted for nearly five hours.
On Monday, the protesting students were in for a rude shock when they received orders of the case against them.
Condemning the FIR against the students, the Students’ Union accused the police of intimidating them with false charges. The union in a statement said, “On the very day when the Constitution was adopted by India 70 years back, Telangana police have deprived the students of their fundamental right of peaceful gathering and rally.”
“At a time when Constitutional ethos are being choked and fundamental rights of the citizens are denied, this heinous act of Telangana police is an attempt to reinstate fear among the students. The Students' Union assures that these false charges and intimidation by the police will not be able to suppress the democratic rights of the students of University of Hyderabad. We will struggle in every democratic means possible to uphold the teachings of Babasaheb Ambedkar,” they said.
In protest against the charges and the forcible escort of Chandra Shekhar Azad to Delhi, students burnt an effigy of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.