Afzal Guru row: JNU sends status report to HRD ministry

New Delhi, Feb 15: JNU today sent a "status" report to HRD ministry about the situation in the campus and the action taken by the varsity in connection with an event against hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, during which anti-India slogans were allegedly raised.

The HRD ministry had last week sought a report about the February 9 incident which has sparked a widespread outrage among various quarters.

"We got a communication from the ministry seeking information about the investigation being conducted by the university about the incident.

A response has been sent today," JNU Registrar Bhupinder Zutshi said. The varsity has stated the sequence of events in the report beginning from how four students had taken permission for an event titled " Poetry-reading-The country without post office".

"On the day of the event, it came to notice of the administration that the poster of the event was captioned 'Against the Brahmanical Collective conscience, against judicial killing of Afzal Guru and Maqbool Bhat and in solidarity with the struggle of the Kashmiri people for their democratic right to self determination," the report said. "...despite the university deciding to withdraw the permission the students went ahead with the programme where allegedly certain objectionable slogans were raised.

The organisers also invited the media to cover it without permission from university authorities. "The varsity constituted a high-level enquiry committee comprising of three members to enquire into the incident.

On basis of the interim report, eight students identified by the panel have been debarred from academic activities while allowing them to stay in hostel as guest," the report added. The varsity has also told the ministry that the final report of the committee will be submitted by February 25.

Informing the ministry about the apprehension among faculty members about police presence on campus, JNU has said, "a letter was sent to police requesting them to take utmost precautions before entering the university campus if required under law. Police officers gave us assurance that police will enter the campus only if absolutely necessary as per law and authorities will be informed in advance".

The university administration is facing flak from teachers and students who have alleged that the issue was "manhandled". The JNU students union president Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested on February 12 in connection with a case of sedition and criminal conspiracy over an event at the varsity against hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.

PTI