BHU students protest, demand chief proctor take back FIR and resign

The women students of Banaras Hindu University once again launched a protest, from the gates of the women’s college to the Singh Dwar of Lanka in BHU, against the administration on Saturday evening. Hundreds of women students gathered at the women’s college gate and staged a dharna demanding that Chief Proctor Royana Singh should take back both her comments and an FIR filed against students. They also demanded Singh’s resignation.

Recently, Singh had said during an interview to the TV new channel Zee News that during the protest by women students last September, truck-loads of pizzas and cold drinks were supplied to the protestors. Angered by this statement, both male and female students had demonstrated in front of the chief proctor’s office on Thursday. After the demonstration, the chief proctor registered an FIR against 12 students in Lanka police station, and had even alleged attempt to murder in the complaint.

An FIR has been registered in Lanka police station under IPC section 147, 148, 353, 332, 527, 504, 307 and 395 against Mrityunjay Maurya, Vikas Singh, Shivangi Chaube, Mithilesh Kumar, Garima Yadav, Deepak Singh, Rajat Singh, Anup Kumar, Shashwat Upadhyay, Aparna, Parul Shukla and Jai Maurya, along with unnamed persons.

Last year, hundreds of women students had protested and blocked the Singh Dwar gate for two days as a student was allegedly molested near Bharat Kala Bhavan in BHU. During this protest, the BHU administration along with the district administration lathi-charged the protesting students, which resulted in incidents of arson and violence in which many students and police officials were injured. Later, pressurised by various social organisations, the then Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof Girish Chandra Tripathi, had to go on a long leave just two months before his tenure ended. The then chief proctor was also forced to resign and Prof Royana Singh was appointed in his place, becoming the first woman chief proctor of the prestigious Banaras Hindu University.