Delhi police on Monday detained 15 people — 13 students and a teacher of Delhi University (DU), and a research scholar of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) — who called for a public meeting to commemorate bandit-turned-MP Phoolan Devi on her death anniversary.
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The call for the public meeting was given by “concerned students of Delhi University” to observe Phoolan Devi’s 21st ‘Martyrdom Day’, highlighting her journey from the ravines of Chambal to Parliament as a person who “rebelled against centuries of caste and male domination”.
Sangeeta Geet, a first-year Political Science student and general secretary of Bhagat Singh Chhatra Ekta Manch (BSCEM), said the police detained the students for organising a remembrance meeting of “a person that every woman should know about as she had the courage to fight against her oppressors”.
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“I come from Mainpuri in Uttar Pradesh and have grown up listening to the change that Phoolan Devi brought about for women who were being oppressed. The remembrance meeting was an attempt to speak against atrocities that women from marginalised sections face,” Ms. Geet said.
Feminist idol
One of the invitees who was scheduled to speak at the event, Kanchana Yadav, who hails from U.P.’s Jaunpur and is a research scholar at JNU, was also detained.
“To me, Phoolan Devi is an idol for every feminist. She is the queen of women’s rights. It is due to her courage that several women today live with dignity. This that we were going to commemorate at the meeting today,” Ms. Yadav said.
DCP (North) Sagar Singh Kalsi said, “They (crowd) were told to not hold a meeting because there was a notification issued under section 144 of CrPC.”
He added that when the crowd did not disperse, 15 persons were detained and were subsequently released around 5 p.m.