Violence at HCU: Telangana Congress faults lathicharge on legislator

Hyderabad: Blaming the TRS government for the sequence of events at University of Hyderabad and Osmania University over the past few days, TPCC president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy on Wednesday condemned the arrest of students and demanded their immediate release.

He alleged that police had illegally detained the UoH students who had protested on the campus on Tuesday during the press conference of vice-chancellor Prof. Appa Rao Podile.

Speaking to the media at Gandhi Bhavan on Wednesday, he said that reinstating Prof. Appa Rao was the actual reason for the violence on the campus.

He asked how the government could reinstate a person who was not only responsible for the death of a Dalit PhD scholar, but also an incident that triggered protests across the country against the violation of human rights.

Instead of taking action against Prof. Podile under the SC/ST atrocities Act, the government had reinstated him even as the student groups were protesting the feudal behaviour of the university authorities, he said.

Mr Uttam Kumar Reddy said that Prof. Appa Rao’s return as V-C was a clear insult to the self-respect of Dalits across the country. He said the students who were detained by the police on Tuesday were not shown as arrested and their mobiles were snatched by police officials.

Further, parents were not informed of the arrests. He charged the state with targeting people and students who raised their voice against the government.