Student groups protest against beating up of their comrades by the Matunga police on Saturday, in Worli. (Photo: Asian Age)
Student groups protest against beating up of their comrades by the Matunga police on Saturday, in Worli. (Photo: Asian Age)
Around 40 members of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) and Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) organised a protest at Worli on Sunday against the beating up of their fellow comrades by the Matunga police on Saturday.
They had submitted an application to the Matunga police on Friday seeking permission to protest against the Fergusson College incident. A talk organised in the college by Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad on ‘Truth of JNU’ was disrupted by a group of students who called themselves Ambedkarites. The Matunga police, however, did not grant permission to the protesters. According to the protesters, the Matunga police is prejudiced against them and so had denied them permission to even protest against the suicide of dalit PhD scholar Rohith Vemula.
One of the protesters Shailendra Kamble said, “The senior police inspector of Matunga was arrogant and spoke to us rudely when we gathered for the protest. When a few of our members went to submit another application to the Matunga police station to condemn the police action, the senior police inspector beat up our comrades badly.” He further added, “He also arrested 20 protesters who approached him to submit the application requesting the permission to organise a protest, on Saturday night.”
Police officials, however, said that the youth were arrested as they were creating problems near the police station. Senior police inspector of the Matunga police station Balasaheb Kakad said, “The protesters came to police station and started shouting slogans and creating problems for others. When we asked them to stop, they did not listen to us and so we arrested them.”
