The high-level Enquiry Committee that was formed to look into the February 9 incident where an >event on Afzal Guru was organised on the campus of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), submitted its report to the Vice-Chancellor on Friday and with this, the suspension of eight students stands cancelled.
Out of the eight debarred students, six, who are on the campus will now be able to participate in academic activities from Saturday. However, further action on students will be taken on the basis of the findings of the report. The punishment/action will be decided by the Proctor’s office. This will take a few more days.
The committee was constituted by the university on February 11 to look into the incident. Following the formation of the committee, eight students — Kanhaiya Kumar, Rama Naga, Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya, Ashutosh Kumar, Anant Prakash, Aishwarya Adhikari and Shweta Raj — were debarred from academic activities on February 12.
The committee initially comprised three members — Prof. Rakesh Bhatnagar, Prof. Himadri Bohidar and Prof. Suman K. Dhar. Two more members were later added to it after students and teachers refused to accept the composition of the committee, citing that the panel had no representative from the SC/ST community or a woman.
According to university sources, further action to be taken will be decided on the seriousness of charges that have been found in the inquiry report. “The quantum of punishment will most likely be at three levels — some students will be let off with fine, some might have to leave their hostels and some others might be rusticated,” a source in the university said.
