After court denies bail and Lucknow University suspends them, student unions hold protest, seek help from Governor

A CJM court on Friday rejected bail pleas of the 11 college students including two girls who allegedly blocked the convoy of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and showed him black flags on Wednesday

Eight of these students have also been suspended by the Lucknow University on charge of breaching security of the CM’s convoy when he was on his way to attend a programme in the varsity.

Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Sunil Kumar rejected the bail pleas of the students on Friday after perusal of case diary produced by Hasanganj police. The court observed that the offence was of serious nature and, hence, the applicants did not deserve bail.

On June 8, Chief Judicial Magistrate Sandhya Srivastava had sent the 11 students to four days judicial remand. The court had summoned the entire case diary on Friday for considering bail pleas of the students.

Meanwhile, the Lucknow University said that eight students have been suspended and debarred from all student facilities in the university in the wake of the “security breach” of the CM’s convoy. “The names of suspended students are: Satwant Singh, Nitin Raj, Pooja Shukla, Anil Kumar Yadav, Ankit Kumar Singh, Rakesh Kumar, Madhurya Singh and Apoorva Verma,” N.K. Pandey director, Information, Publication and Public Relation, University of Lucknow said.

Lending its support to the students, various Left-affiliated student unions, including SFI, AISA, NSUI, DYFI, RYA and AIPWA, attempted to stage a dharna at the Mahatma Gandhi statue in Lucknow on Saturday but were soon asked to leave by the police. The students, however, submitted a memorandum of their demands to the Governor. They want the arrested students to be released immediately, the cases against them annulled and their suspension revoked.

SP leaders meet students

A delegation of Samajwadi Party leaders led by MLC Anand Bhadauria met the students in prison on Friday and claimed that they were being treated like criminals and mentally harassed.

“The BJP government must keep in mind that these are students studying in the university, not criminals. They wanted to expose the irregularities in the university by demonstrating in front of the Chief Minister. Peaceful protest is not a crime in a democracy,” SP spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said. He demanded that the administration immediately stop the “inhuman treatment” meted out to the students and arrange for a separate barracks for the girls.

Delhi joins chorus

In New Delhi, a large number of students protested outside the U.P. Bhavan demanding immediate withdrawal of cases against Lucknow University students.

JNUSU president Mohit Pandey said, “It is shameful that the government is branding everyone who protests against them as Naxalites and anti-nationals. We have seen this in JNU and we are seeing the same with the Bhim Army and the students of Lucknow University who protested against Yogi Adityanath.”

Those who protested outside the Uttar Pradesh Bhavan included students from Delhi University, JNU and Jamia Millia.

(With inputs from PTI)