Osmania University tense, 7 cops injured in stone pelting by students

Hyderabad, Mar 23: Seven policemen were today injured when a group of students from Osmania University (OU) pelted stones when they were shifting the body of a man found inside a water tank on the campus, police said.

The incident triggered tension in the University campus. Two of the seven police personnel suffered injuries on their head, Deputy Commissioner of Police (east zone), A Ravindar, told PTI.

"The protesting students held a dharna raising slogans and did not allow the police to shift the body despite showing them the identity card of the deceased that established that he was not a student," he said.

"They later started pelting police with stones. However, the protesters have been dispersed and efforts are on to nab those who hurled stones," he said.

Earlier, the students, after learning that the body of a man was found in the water tank, gathered in large numbers and started protesting, claiming that the deceased was a student and alleged that he had committed suicide.

They also demanded an inquiry into his death. When the policemen were in the process of shifting the body for postmortem, the protesting students tried to prevent them and suddenly started pelting stones.

"The students claimed that the deceased was a student, but infact it is not so...," Assistant Commissioner of Police (Kachiguda Division) Ch Laxminaryana told PTI. He said the deceased has been identified as a labourer, of M K Nagar adjoining the OU, who had got inside the tank for swimming a couple of days back, but his body was found today.

"He (the deceased) seems to be a drunkard and he got inside the tank in view of the summer to cool himself...it seems he died due to suffocation and drowned," the ACP said based on preliminary investigation.

"They (some protesting students) resorted to stone pelting...the situation is tense, but under control now," Laxminaryana said. Additional forces were deployed on the campus following the stone pelting incident.

PTI