Hyderabad: Loud cries of ‘Police down down’ and ‘Khabardaar KCR’ were heard on Monday morning as students of OU gathered at the Arts College entrance and staged a protest, alleging that the government was responsible for the suicide of student E. Murali.
The students shouted slogans demanding justice, burnt effigies of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and pelted stones at the police. Some of them were taken away in two trucks.
Minister T. Harish Rao had called Murali’s mother, Laxmi around midnight on Sunday and told her that the government will provide Rs 5 lakh for the family, said Shiva, a student from OU.
“We refused the offered amount and demanded '50 lakh instead and a job for his younger brother. We refused to give the body to the cops, who were convincing the parents to accept the amount. It was then the police did a lathi-charge and stones were pelted,” said Shiva.
At 10 am on Monday, a small group gathered at the Physics College demanding the release of students who were detained by the police on Sunday night after they refused to let the police take charge of the body.
The group raised slogans of 'We want justice' and 'Police go back'. Soon a group of students emerged from the Maneru hostel and joined them and together they confronted the police and told them to leave..
"They did not let us near them and started shouting 'Police go back' whenever we tried to approach them. We gave them permission to give condolences to the 21 year old student and not to make a fuss. However, they started marching forward and started pelting stones at us," said the Assistant Commissioner of Police J. Narsaiah.
Some of the stone pelters were loaded into the police vans, but "as per their request, we let them walk till the Arts College" the ACP said.
The by now large gathering before the Arts College started shouting their demands. When they got more aggressive and started pelting stones again, the police moved in, in order to get the situation under control, a cop said..
"We arrested 22 students under several sections of the IPC, including damaging government property," said Police Inspector of Osmania University, Ashok Reddy.
The protesters fled when the police advanced against them. They later burnt an effigy of the Chief Minister in front of Krishnaveni hostel. But the situation was brought under control and the protest stopped.
