A group of students from Banaras Hindu University (BHU) on their way to the Prime Minister’s residence to submit a memorandum against recent police action on campus were detained by the Delhi Police on Thursday.
The nine detained students comprised a female student. The students claimed that she too was detained with them and taken to Chanakyapuri police station despite absence of a female officer at the spot. However, Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) B.K. Singh said only the male students were detained.
NCW office
Ramayan Patel, one of the students who was detained, said they were stopped near Samrat Hotel around 5 p.m., which is close to the Prime Minister’s official residence at Lok Kalyan Marg.
“We had come to the Capital with a group some days ago. Some of our friends went back but we are still camping here. On Thursday, nine of us first went to the office of the National Commission for Women, where we met NCW member Rekha Sharma. After the meeting, we were going to meet the Prime Minister, who is also the Lok Sabha MP from our constituency, at his residence when we were stopped,” said Mr. Patel, who is the convenor of the joint action committee of the university.
He said the police let them off around 9 p.m. on the condition that they would return to Varanasi. “Some of my fellow students want to go back and they are free to do so. I and a few others have been protesting at Jantar Mantar for the past few days and plan to continue the stir,” he said.
