'Violence was fanned by rumour mongers'

 Unfazed by his severe criticism over handling of the students protest, Banaras Hindu University (BHU) vice chancellor Girish Chandra Tripathi on Tuesday maintained that the violence in the university campus was fanned by “rumour mongering” and “outsiders.”

“We have the footage in which outsiders can be clearly seen at the protest. Rumour mongering escalated the protests,” he told reporters.

Though Tripathi maintained that BHU administration was “upset” over the police crackdown on students, which left many including women students of the varsity injured on Saturday, he refused to accept accusation of his failure in handling the situation.

He said a committee, headed by a retired judge of Allahabad High Court V K Dixit, has been set up by the Uttar Pradesh government on the recommendation of the BHU administration to conduct a probe into the incident.

“The committee will probe the incident and submit its report. We will take action as per the recommendations of the committee,” he said.

The BHU vice chancellor, who was here to attend a meeting of BHU’s executive council, also said that he has kept Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Prakash Javadekar updated on the
issue.

The HRD Ministry, however, remained tight-lipped on the issue.