He had received a call on Saturday evening from some of the protesting students he knew, AD recalled. They had apprehended trouble and requested him to keep his house open in case they needed to take shelter, he added. Tension was building up through Saturday when girl students came out on the street to have a word with Varanasi MP and the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and union minister Smriti Irani, who were expected to drive through the area.

When attempts to disperse them failed, police force had to divert the PM’s motorcade. “Two cars cannot be driven next to each other on that narrow lane but rather than speak to the students, the PM’s handlers opted to take the lane instead to whisk him away,” he recalled.

Police waited till the PM left the city on Saturday evening before returning to the campus in their hundreds.

Rubbishing claims that students pelted stones at the police, eyewitness accounts alleged that some of the policemen were seen carrying stones by people in the neighbourhood. They also rubbished BHU officials’ claims that students threw petrol bombs.

Two motorcycles belonging to the police were indeed set on fire but eyewitness accounts again challenge the police version that students and anti-social elements did it. “The students were facing the police while the two bikes which were burnt were right behind where the policemen stood,” one of them, BM, told NH. “ How could the students have done it ?” he asked.

As reported earlier, the unrest began on Thursday when a girl student was molested while on her way back to her hostel. The situation took an ugly turn after complaints made to the Warden, Proctor and the Vice Chancellor elicited no action.