Punjab Police has confirmed that the FIR lodged against the students of Desh Bhagat University will be cancelled and an FIR has been registered against the University Officials.
Speaking to The Kashmiriyat, the Station House Officer of the concerned Police Station Amloh said that the process for the cancellation of FIR registered against 16 students has been initiated. “Yes, they FIR has been cancelled, but the formal procedure takes a couple of days,” the officer said.
He said that an FIR has been registered against 16 persons working at the University vide the number 135/ 2023. A copy of the FIR accessed by The Kashmiriyat stated that charges have been filed under the sections 420, 406, 354 B, 323, 341, 427, 506, 148 and section 149 of the Indian Penal Code.
“Arrests will be soon made in the FIR. The University is shut and it is taking us a little while to locate the accused in the FIR,” he said.
Nursing students of the University have been on a protest for several weeks against their transfer to a college which is not recognized by the Indian Nursing Council. Many of the students in their third year said that the University has been delaying their INC registration while others alleged that the University kept them in dark about their transfer to another college.
Hundreds of Sikhs activists and leaders from Punjab have been meeting the Kashmiri students to express their solidarity with the students. They have also been demanding that the Police lodge an FIR against the University.
Angad Singh Khalsa, a Kashmiri Sikh activist expressed thankfulness to all organizations that reached the University campus to support the protesting students, most of them from Kashmir. “We are thankful to the leadership of Akali Dal (Fateh), Sath Students Organization, Tajveer Singh (farmer leader) and others who stood with our students in difficult times. We request them to keep following up the case,” said Angad.
Kashmiri Students in the university thanked the local Sikh community and their leadership who stood with them in the “difficult time.” They said that Sikh leadership other than speaking constantly to the Police and University administration also sat with them and brought them food items and other essentials.
“It could not have been possible without their support. On day one, when we held the protest, an FIR was lodged against us in retaliation, but only after the intervention of farmers leaders, students leaders from the local Sikh community, the pressure build up to revoke the FIR against us,” one of the students accused in the FIR (now cancelled) told The Kashmiriyat.
The students said that they had been highly worried about their career since the news of the lodging of the FIR came to the fore. Senior officials from the Police have called the students for some formalities and the FIR would be cancelled, they said.
During the protests on September 14, the students gathered on the University gate raising slogans against the University administration. However, a few staff members intervened and assaulted the students without any provocation.
The Kashmiriyat reported on September 14 that the students had been protesting for around three weeks against the transfer of their admissions into another nursing college which lacks INC recognition.
A Kashmiri student Sheema had said, when the students did not pay any heed to them, the Pro-Chancellor came and manhandled the students. “They tore our Abayas, some had bruises even police also did the same and 10 of our girls are at the hospital,” claimed Sheema.
Following this incident, an FIR has been lodged against them including those who were assaulted. Copy of FIR available with The Kashmiriyat stated that more than 16 people have been booked under at least eight (8) sections of Indian penal Code. The FIR has been lodged at Police Station Almoh in Punjab vide the number 134/2023 under various sections of the IPC.
14 individuals were named in the FIR, while two more accused remain unknown, as per the FIR copy.
Three out of the fourteen persons named in FIR are from outside Jammu Kashmir–one of them from Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, two from Punjab.