Nine days after they began relay hunger strike, students of the English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU) have called off their fast after the parents and guardians knocked on the doors of the Telangana High Court for justice.
“We called off the fast at 1 p.m., the same time the writ petition was to be submitted to the court,” informed a student.
The students have been protesting for the past 26 days after a student was sexually assaulted on the campus on October 18. The writ petition filed by parents and guardians, accessed by this reporter makes six demands: reconstitution of Internal Complaints Committee with student representatives, withdrawal of FIRs and showcause notices to students, conduct student union elections, withdrawal of police presence from the campus, end to non-consensual filming of students by administration, and lifting of restrictions on parents visiting their children on the campus.
Meanwhile, the Osmania University (OU) police have booked fresh cases against the students of EFLU on Tuesday. Police said that they have received a complaint from Professor Narasimha Rao Kedari, the Registrar of the university, against the students protesting on the campus.
Police said that the Registrar alleged in his complaint that the students have illegally blocked the main gate of the campus with their protest and wrote ‘objectionable slogans’ on campus property. “The Registrar has named 17 students in his complaint. He said that these students are scheming unrest on the campus and abetting the innocent students to take part in the ongoing indefinite hunger strike. In addition to giving objectionable slogans, the following group of protesting students have written some inciting slogans,” said the police.
The complaint was addressed to DCP (East), Sunil Dutt. When asked about the same, the DCP said that a case was booked and the OU police have been directed to take actions accordingly.
The case was booked under Sections 342 and 506 r/w 34 of the IPC and Section 4 of the Telangana Prevention of Disfigurement of Open Place and Prohibition of obscene and Objectionable posters and advertisements Act of 1997.
