49 booked for assault, passing casteist remarks during scuffle at BHU

Varanasi: An FIR has been lodged against 49 persons after ABVP activists accused them of assault, insulting Hindu religion, spreading religious enmity and using casteist remarks during a scuffle that broke out at the Banaras Hindu University gate two days ago, police said on Tuesday. Student members of the Akhil Bhartiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP), All India Students Association (AISA) and the Bhagat Singh Chatra Morcha (BCM) clashed here on Sunday forcing police to use light force, officials said.

According to office bearers of the ABVP, their members were protesting to ensure justice for the female student of IIT-BHU who was molested earlier this week near the university's main gate. Members of AISA and the BCM reached there and started the scuffle, ABVP alleged.

Based on the complaint by ABVP members following the scuffle, a case was registered at the Lanka police station here on Monday against 17 named and 32 unidentified persons involved in the scuffle on Sunday, Lanka SHO Shivakanat Mishra said.

Charges in the FIR include insult of Hindu religion, spreading religious enmity, assault, and use of casteist remarks, the SHO said.

ABVP's BHU unit president Abhay Pratap Singh said ABVP is protesting to get justice for the female student who was recently molested in the IIT-BHU campus and against the university administration's decision to 'divide the campus'.

'On Sunday, AISA and Bhagat Singh Chhatra Morch goons not only abused the activists of ABVP, but also attacked them fatally and threatened them, following which ABVP activists suffered serious injuries,' Singh said.

The office bearers of BCM denied the allegations and accused the ABVP of 'being violent and unjust.' BHU has lately been in the news over the alleged molestation of a female student on the campus on the night of November 1.

According to the complainant, she had gone out of her hostel with a friend when three men on a motorbike forcibly took her to a corner and gagged her near the Karman Baba temple.

The accused then allegedly stripped the woman, took her pictures and recorded a video of the act. They let her go after about 15 minutes and took her phone number, the complaint stated.

Based on the woman's complaint, an FIR was registered under Section 354 (assault or criminal force to a woman with intent to outrage her modesty) of the Indian Penal Code and provisions of the Information Technology Act at the Lanka police station, officials said.