Bus torched by people in protest against death of an LLB student of Allahabad University. (Source: Twitter/@ANI_news)
The killing of a Dalit student of Allahabad University led to widespread violence in the city as students on Monday went on a rampage, setting fire to a bus. The angry students also laid siege to the house of District Magistrate Suhas LY, police said. Brutally assaulted by four men at a restaurant on Friday night, Dilip Saroj died on Saturday after slipping into coma. The police have arrested the waiter of the restaurant. Two policemen have also been suspended.
Angry varsity students aligned to the Samajwadi Yuvjan Sabha (SYS) and the All India Students Association (AISA) took out a protest march on Monday and raised anti-government and anti-police slogans. Demanding immediate arrest of the culprits, the students also sought adequate compensation for the deceased student’s family.
Saroj was a LLB 2nd year student and hailed from Pratapgarh. A video of the killing has gone viral, leaving the police red-faced.
Attacking the BJP government for the killing of Saroj, BSP chief Mayawati alleged that it was the result of narrow and casteist politics of
hatred being pursued by the state’s ruling party. “The barbaric murder of a Dalit student in Allahabad is not an isolated case as such incidents are occurring on a regular basis. And no one else but the BJP’s narrow, casteist politics of hatred is responsible for it,” she said in a press release.
Mayawati said that such incidents had vitiated the atmosphere in the country and the youth were experiencing frustration because of dearth of jobs for the educated ones among the ‘sarv samaj’. There is also an increase in crime, she added.
The Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council also witnessed noisy scenes over the death of Saroj. Leader of Opposition and SP member Ahmed Hasan alleged that though such incidents with Dalits were taking place across the country, the government had remained silent.
Seeking to corner the ruling BJP government on law and order in the state, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said that the killing of a Dalit student in Allabahad showed that state was in the “grip of criminal elements”. “No law and order is prevailing in the state. Murder of a Dalit student in Allahabad shows that the state is in the grip of criminal elements and the police is only killing innocents in encounters,” Yadav said.
Demanding a Rs 50 lakh compensation for the family of the Dalit law student killed in Allahabad, he claimed law and order had collapsed under the present regime.
(With PTI inputs)