Less than a week after the shocking video of a female medical student in Andhra Pradesh being manhandled by a police driver emerged, the policeman has been suspended.
Last week, students from Eluru’s Alluri Sitarama Raju Academy of Medical Sciences (ASARAMS) were protesting against the college administration after they were denied summer holidays. The administrators had called the police to keep the protesting students in check. However, in an appalling video which emerged, a man (who was later identified to be a police driver in mufti) can be seen taking a video of the women protesting even as they say “no photos”. One student proceeds to snatch the phone from the man’s hand after which he grabs her hands aggressively.
In view of this, the police driver, identified as Constable Mohan, was suspended by the Superintendent of Police M Ravi Prakash on Sunday evening.
Students later alleged that the girl was taken aside by college officials and police, and kept in isolation from other students and threatened. In addition, at least three other male students were taken aside and allegedly physically assaulted by police.
The incident sparked widespread outrage, with the Telangana Junior Doctors’ Association (TJUDA) condemning the behaviour of the college administration and the police, and demanding immediate action and punishment. TJUDA also wrote to the Governor seeking his intervention in the issue.
The college administration also filed a complaint with the Eluru Police against 40 students, however, no further action has been taken.
Speaking about the issue to TNM, one student of ASARAMS said, “Our college officials had approached the police and filed a complaint, but the students are not in custody because no action has been taken yet. One of the professors also spoke to a college administrative member who said the issue has been taken care of, but that no legal action has been taken.”
This was confirmed to TNM by the Eluru DSP who also rubbished claims that students had been taken into custody. “Officials from the college did give a complaint, but no action was taken against any student.”
After the incident, the college issued a notice in which it addressed some basic rules, but did not acknowledge the leave issue which the students were protesting over. The students engaged in a peaceful protest on the campus grounds after they had not been allocated summer holidays.