Following attacks\, ABVP\, SFS students hold protests at Panjab University

Following attacks, ABVP, SFS students hold protests at Panjab University

Amidst slogans of ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ and ‘SFS hooliganism will not be tolerated’, members of the ABVP gathered to condemn the attack outside Boys Hostel No 3, which had left one of its members severely injured on Saturday evening.

Written by Chahat Rana | Chandigarh | Updated: February 4, 2020 12:39:44 pm
ABVP, ABVP students hold protest, PU students protest, SFS students protests, panjab university, chandigarh news, indian express Members of ABVP unit protest at Student Centre at Panjab University, Chandigarh, on Monday. (Express Photo: Kamleshwar Singh)

In light of the physical altercations that occurred between members of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and the Students for Society (SFS) at Panjab University (PU) on Saturday, both the student organisations staged protests against each other at the PU Student Centre on Monday afternoon.

Amidst slogans of ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ and ‘SFS hooliganism will not be tolerated’, members of the ABVP gathered to condemn the attack outside Boys Hostel No 3, which had left one of its members severely injured on Saturday evening. The injured student, Divyansh Sharma, has registered an FIR and named a few members of the SFS as the perpetrators of the attack on him.

Several SFS members at the protest claimed that the attack took place in response to the lewd and “misogynistic” comments that Divyansh, the ABVP student who was attacked, had posted on a Facebook group. “We cannot tolerate those who treat women like this, and post such derogatory comments,” said some SFS members during the protest.

After the attack which took place on Saturday night, Divyansh registered an FIR on Sunday, naming four members of SFS, including the PU SFS president Varinder Singh. The FIR was registered under the Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 341 (wrongful restraint), 147 (for rioting), 141 (show of criminal force) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC.

ABVP, ABVP students hold protest, protest at PU, SFS students hold protests at PU, PU ABVP president Parwinder Katora, punjab university, chandigarh city news, indian express SFS members stage protests in Panjab University. (Express Photo: Kamleshwar Singh)

“We are not sure whether the ones responsible for the attacks are from our organisation, but the persons named in the FIR including me, were not responsible for the attacks,” said Varinder of SFS.

PU ABVP president Parwinder Katora also said that names in the FIR were wrong, and they would be updated after checking the CCTV footage from Saturday evening. “We are aware that some of those names were wrongly given, because Divyansh was in a terrible condition and badly hurt, he gave some people’s names who might have not been there, but they were SFS students for sure. We will make sure we update the real culprits’ names in the FIR,” said Katora.

The police said that they are probing the case. They further said that the CCTV footage proved that three out of the four names provided by the complainant were not present at the sight of violence, however, a person named in the FIR has been identified through the footage.

Following the incident, an SFS student, Antarpreet Singh, who was also named in the FIR, was allegedly attacked outside Boys Hostel No 1 by a few ABVP members on Sunday night. “I was outside the Boys Hostel No 1 when they attacked me. They tore off my turban and said you survived 1984 but you will not survive anymore,” said Antarpreet. A DDR was registered regarding the incident and the police said, it needs to conduct an inquiry before registering an FIR.