A team of Mumbai Police entered the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) campus late Monday night with heavy force and detained several students for organising a peaceful gathering in memory of late human rights defender G.N. Saibaba on his first death anniversary, observed the previous day.
“There is still police presence on the campus. They came hours ago,” a student told Maktoob at 2 a.m. on Tuesday.
“We don’t know the exact details. We don’t know why the police came or who complained. It was a peaceful candlelight gathering to honour a rights defender,” the student said.
According to an Indian Express report, Mumbai Police invoked sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to “causing prejudice to the nation,” “promoting enmity between groups,” and “unlawful assembly,” among others, against at least ten students.
The FIR was registered based on a complaint from the TISS administration, the newspaper reported.
Confirming the action against around ten students, a senior TISS official, who did not wish to be named, told IE, “The event was apparently organised to observe the death anniversary of G.N. Saibaba around 9 p.m. on Sunday. The administration was not aware of the event as the students had not sought any permission.”
“Additionally, it went unnoticed since it was a Sunday. It was brought to our notice on Monday through social media posts sharing photos and videos of the event, questioning the TISS administration for allowing it. The posts also tagged the Mumbai Police and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis,” the official added.
This story was originally published in maktoobmedia.com. Read the full story here.
