Hyd Uni suspends 10 students who protested hostel raid for misconduct, verbal assault

Accusing them of misconduct and verbal assault, University of Hyderabad suspended 10 students on Wednesday. Out of the 10 students, three of them were suspended for two years and the rest were suspended for a period of six months.

The three students who were suspended for two years were—Pratyush Nirjher, Atira Unni and Sagnik Saha—all in their second-year at UoH. They were accused of preventing officials from discharging their duties and verbal assault.

Gender Sensitization Committee Against Sexual Harassment (GSCASH) elected representative, Tinanjali Dam was also named in the list and is suspended from the hostel and academic programmes for six months along with six others which includes SFI general secretary Yamarthi Sai Kumar.

The order for the suspension came after the inquiry committee constituted by the Vice Chancellor found the 10 students guilty of preventing authorities from discharging duties.

On November 3, hostel warden, deputy chief warden along with security guards raided the men’s Hostel-J in the university to check if girls were staying over, which is against the guidelines of the administration.

Irked by the move and accusing the authorities of moral policing, students soon flocked to the hostel and restricted the entry of the officials into the hostel. This led to arguments and sloganeering against the wardens. As the situation went out of control, police had to be called in.  

Condemning the suspension, Students’ Union President Sreerag Poickadan called the University’s decision a ‘brutal act’. He said that the charges against the suspended students were silly. “I was there at the protest site on the said day, students were just raising slogans, which was nothing unusual. The charges of manhandling are totally false,” he said.

Finding fault with the inquiry committee, he said that the student representatives weren’t included in the committee.

Announcing of a protest, the Students’ Union President also alleged, “The university administration ever since Appa Rao [Vice Chancellor] took charge. He is trying to suppress the voice of the students,” adding, “Penalizing the students with harsh punishments just before exams is condemnable. We soon will organize a protest against this action.”

SFI general secretary, Yamarthi Sai said that they were not aware of the constitution of the committee and neither know on what basis the committee found them guilty of misconduct. “The inquiry committee as a regular practice should have asked us to represent our side of the story before taking any action against us,” he said.