12 Allahabad University Students detained after harassing two professors over fee hike

NEW DELHI: Police on Saturday detained at least 12 students of Allahabad University after they stormed into a building and lay under their siege two professors as part of their agitation against fee hike, police said. The agitating students stormed the FRC(Faculty Recruitment Cell) building near the proctor's office in the afternoon and allegedly gheraoed Professor Manmohan Krishna and Professor Ashish Saxena after which the university administration called the police, police said. "About 12 students were taken into custody for gherao of two professors of the university during their agitation," Ram Mohan Roy, Station House Officer (SHO), Colonelganj Police Station, said.

The agitators were demanding withdrawal of the fee hike, university Public Relations Officer Jaya Kapoor said. The protesters also called the admission committee over phone and threatened that if the fee hike is not rolled back and the admission process continued, then the admission committee will also be gheraoed. At around 4 pm, with the help of the police, both the professors were rescued from these students, the PRO said.

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Ajay Yadav Samrat, a student, who has been on hunger strike against the fee hike, however alleged that the students were called by the university administration for talks, but they were made to sit in a room and handed over to the police. Akhil Yadav, a former vice-president of the students' union, said that on one hand the university administration opens the way for talks and on the other it starts the admission process. He said administration got the police to "arrest" the students when they went to them for talks. Yadav also said that if the fee hike is not reversed, the responsibility of whatever happens on the campus will be Vice Chancellor's. He also gave the names of the students who were allegedly arrested by the police.

The students of Allahabad University have been agitating against fee hike for the last 25 days. The fees for undergraduate level education of the university which was Rs 975 per student per annum, has recently been increased by more than 300 per cent to Rs 4,151 per year.