Lucknow/Srinagar, March 6
The Uttar Pradesh Government on Thursday slapped charges of sedition against 67 Kashmiri students who had cheered Pakistan when its cricket team beat India in the Asia Cup match last Sunday, but dropped the charges late at night following widespread condemnation.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said cheering for Pakistan by the Kashmiri students was wrong, but slapping of sedation charges against them was unacceptable.
He also spoke to his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Akhilesh Yadav, who promised to look into the matter.
Hours later, sedition charges under Section 124A of the IPC were dropped against the students of Meerut’s Swami Vivekananda Subharti University. The charges were dropped after seeking legal advice, a police source said. Other charges under sections 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language etc) and 427 (mischief and causing damage), will, however, stay.
University vice-chancellor Manzoor Ahmed said the sedition charges were
framed by the police on its own, as the university had only suspended the students but not lodged any FIR. The university has constituted a committee headed by a professor of Kashmiri origin to probe the matter.
The suspended students, who returned to the Valley yesterday, protested in Srinagar today. “We don’t want to continue our studies in Meerut University. We don’t feel secure,” said a student. He said they were being blamed by the UP authorities, but it was the local students who resorted to violence and beat them up after the match.
“The local students resorted to violence. They damaged furniture and smashed windowpanes. The irony is that instead of taking any action against them, we were thrown out of the university and booked by the police,” he said. The students said they were forced to leave the college after varsity authorities called the police to evict them from the hostel after the match.
