Students’ union collects Re 1 ‘to pay for damages’ after Gujarat varsity lodges FIR against ‘unidentified students’

Claiming that earlier the students only paid for purchased meals, AGSU President Jayesh Prajapati said, now the students “have been asked to pay Rs 24000 in advance at the beginning of the year towards meal expenditure”. Adding that this is the first such instance, Prajapati said the advance was mandatory “whether the student ends up eating at the mess or not.”

Claiming that the students were not given a hearing during representations, “there was an agitation and the students marched to the residence of the VC” said Prajapati. Prajapati added that money is being collected inorder to repay the VC and “to ask him to withdraw the FIR against students who are not criminals”.

The FIR was lodged at the Sayajigunj police station by MSU Security and Vigilance Officer S K Vala against students for gathering at the VC’s residence, located near Sayaji Baug, at around 7.30 pm on June 28.

The FIR said the students “gathered in an unlawful assembly with malafide intention to further a common cause” and indulged in “jumping over the compound wall and damaging the fibre cover of the main door and the door amounting to Rs 2,000.”

The students have been booked under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections for unlawful assembly, rioting, criminal trespass and mischief causing damage.

Stating that the money being collected is an attempt to get the case withdrawn, the Faculty Representative of Commerce Pankaj Jaiswal said, “We are collecting for the damages to handover to the VC, who must have a salary of over a lakh of rupees but he cannot let go of a small damage.”

Jaiswal further said the VC “should understand what this case would mean for the careers of 200 students, who they have booked in the case”.

The protest came days after BJP MP Hemang Joshi had come out to support the students. Cautioning the students to “observe restraint” in protests and act wisely, Joshi urged the students to “conduct themselves in a manner that should not be intimidating to the families of those who we call our gurus”.

Reacting to the FIR, Joshi also urged the “gurus” to handle the issue sensibly and said, “Students are not criminals, they can be counselled and spoken to.” Given that they have a career ahead of them, complaints of riots against students do not need to be filed, he said.

Joshi, previously too, had expressed displeasure over the video, which had S K Vala allegedly using physical force against students protesting at the MSU head office.