HCU students body calls for nationwide boycott in colleges

Hyderabad: The joint action committee for social justice of the Hyderabad Central University (HCU), the students’ organisation which is leading the protest over Rohith Vemula issue, on Sunday called for boycott of classes at all the (college) campuses in the country on Monday.

The call is in protest against alleged police brutality on students of HCU and in Kozhikode, Mumbai and Chennai, the JAC said in a release.
It also demanded dropping of all charges against students, faculty members at HCU and elsewhere in the country and immediate removal and arrest of P Appa Rao, Vice Chancellor of HCU, under the SC/St (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

The other demands put forward by the body include demilitarisation of the campus, action against police for the unnecessary and targeted violence, false detention, misinformation about the detained people and physical and sexual assault on women students and faculty, and introduction of Rohith Act, according to JAC's press release.

Several students were arrested following attack on VC's residence on March 22 after Appa Rao, who had gone on a long leave after Dalit scholar Vemula's suicide, resumed the duty.

Source: PTI